The Wanaka man who stole ‘bachelorette’ Lily McManus’s heart is now spending lockdown with her at a bach in the Abel Tasman. 

Wanaka clothing designer Richie Boyens has been in a relationship with Lily since the end of reality TV show The Bachelorette NZ.

In the end, Lily chose Richie over a bunch of other men, telling him he was the one she wanted making her breakfast in the morning. 

The couple have had to keep their relationship under wraps until the show (which wrapped months ago) aired its final episode. This makes them “pros” at lockdown, Lily said. The pair has now taken off to Lily’s parents’ bach near Nelson for a solitary month. 

For Richie, who runs the clothing label Clothes I’ve Made, it was the idea of a fun adventure that made him decide to take part in the popular TV show, he said. 

Richie said the people in Wanaka were “unreal”, but “most of the good ones are taken”. 

Richie and Lily

“But yeah, it can’t have been that good, or else I wouldn’t have gone on a dating show,” he admits. 

Richie fell for Lily fast. 

“Before I knew it, I was knee deep in the whole process and had caught feelings,” he said.

The pair hadn’t been living together before the lockdown, but made a last minute choice to take off together when they discovered the country was going into lockdown. 

“We made a spur of the minute decision to come down here for the lockdown period and we’re really happy we did,” Richie said.

“...[I] couldn’t be more stoked to be here with Lily, she’s a gem,” he said.

PHOTOS: TVNZ