They say the first year of marriage is the hardest – but no-one told that to Silver Fern star Laura Langman and husband Adrian Pooley. It’s been a blissful but busy 15 months since the pair wed in a down-to-earth Waikato ceremony, with the couple balancing Laura’s Silver Fern and Northern Mystics commitments with life as a married couple and a whirlwind American honeymoon.
But while everything is rosy on the relationship front for the Hamiltonians, both admit that the last few months have had their challenges, with a disappointing 2014 netball season taking its toll.
“It was a challenging year, definitely,” says Laura (29). “So it was nice to get away after the Commonwealth Games and actually have a honeymoon!”
“Yeah, it was great to have my wife back!” adds Adrian (35) with a grin.
With the Mystics under-performing last year, as well as a less-than-stellar performance at Glasgow 2014 that saw the Ferns come away dissatisfied with silver, a trip away to Las Vegas and Hawaii was just the ticket.
Adrian and Laura’s American adventure gave the couple some much-needed quality time together.
“Last year was so massive in terms of personal growth, and it put a lot of things into perspective,” explains Laura. “It made me realise that you have to make the most of things. And how important balance is! With netball, it can be going your way one week, and then the next, it’s all horribly wrong. But that’s where Adrian is so amazing. If I’m having a bad day, he’ll bring me a coffee or tell me a funny story. He’s pretty awesome.”
Adrian did, however, have some ground to make up on the belated honeymoon, jokes Laura, after their first wedding anniversary in February didn’t quite go as she’d imagined.
“We were sorting out our bags to head down to Mt Maunganui, and I saw all Adrian had packed was his drop-crotch pants,” she says, rolling her eyes. “I’d packed a gorgeous dress, because I was thinking, ‘It’s our anniversary, we’ll be going somewhere flash, surely.’ We ended up with pizza on the beach, which was quite lovely. But I still haven’t had the opportunity to wear the dress!”
Getting dolled up for the Weekly’s Americana-themed shoot is bringing back great memories of their two-week US jaunt last year.
“It really was the best time,” says Adrian. “We started off in Las Vegas for four nights.”
“But we didn’t win millions, obviously,” Laura adds with a laugh, “because we’re still here! It really highlighted how beige I am! I was gobsmacked the whole time.”
Their trip to Las Vegas, Nevada and the Hawaiian island of O’ahu helped to reinvigorate their marriage.
From Sin City, the pair flew to Hawaii, where the “relaxing” part of the honeymoon was supposed to begin. Laura had other ideas, though, promptly starting each morning with a long run.
“I still can’t believe she trained,” Adrian starts to say, before his wife protests, “Oh, come on! It’s ingrained! And that’s how I found all of those hidden gems of places, like the really good fruit market.”
Happily, the rest of their week was spent on the beach, aside from an emergency 3am shopping trip for aloe vera, after Laura became badly sunburned.
Most importantly, the holiday gave the couple some time out from their hectic lives to spend some quality time together.
And with this year’s Netball World Cup fast approaching, it was precious time indeed, with Laura currently juggling netball, her chartered accountant exams and a part-time job at Deloitte in Hamilton. And it’s only going to get busier.
That, of course, doesn’t leave much time for babies any time soon – much to Laura’s mum Christine’s disappointment.
“Isn’t it funny – we keep getting asked when we’re having a baby,” says Laura. “When we went to my family’s at Christmas, my mum was running around after my cousin’s kids, so I had to say to her, ‘Don’t get any ideas – it’s not happening yet!'”
Laura has a busy season of netball ahead with the World Cup and finals of the ANZ New Zealand Conference.
The pair instead are more than happy to keep their little family at two for now, with Laura loving nothing more than curling up at home with her husband after a game. It is, however, getting to the business end of the netball season. Laura is making the sport a priority in the run-up to the World Cup, which will be held in Sydney in August. And the Mystics are now defending a top position in the ANZ New Zealand Conference.
“It’s a pinnacle year,” explains Laura, who last year filled in as captain after Casey Kopua was unavailable due to injury. “It means I’ve had to put other things on the backburner – I’m taking the term ‘part-time’ to the extreme at work!
“But when you’re starting to get in the upper age bracket in the sport, you can’t just assume you’ll be in the team next year. “So I’m going to work as hard as I can!”
