They bemoaned the lack of privacy they received during the early part of their first date, but it seems Sarah Milne and William Chalmers did eventually get some alone time.
Scottish backpacker Sarah’s efforts to woo Mr Chalmers after she spotted him at a beach in Picton – north of Christchurch – went viral after she painted a poster of him and left a note requesting he meet up with her.
The poster was a huge hit on the internet and received attention from all over the world, with Mr Chalmers eventually stumbling across it and deciding to do the decent thing and agree to meet up.
The pair had such a good night that Miss Milne agreed to stay with Mr Chalmers for an ‘amazing’ sleepover and cooked him breakfast in the morning. She’s even decided to stay with him for the rest of the week.
‘I told her, “If you want to stay here for a week you can”, and she said “yes”,’ he told stuff.co.nz. after Ms Milne had cooked him eggs on toast
‘She’s full of life … there was no awkwardness at all.’
He was impressed to discover Ms Milne was an artist and cartoonist and looked forward to getting to know her over the next week.
‘People are asking if we’re getting married. I don’t think people realise yesterday was the first time we talked,’ he said.
The Glaswegian artist was relaxing at the beach in Picton – north of Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island – when she spotted her mystery man ‘shirtless, wearing black shorts with stars tattooed on his torso and running with a curly, bouncy and blonde dog’.
She decided she had to see him again, and despite not knowing anything about him apart from how he looked, decided to create a poster which she hung next to the beach in the hope he would see it.
Nursing hangovers after a night of ‘cheap beers’, Mr Chalmers said they are so comfortable with each other that people think they have been together for an eternity not just a day.
He works at a local burger joint and the pair met for the first time on Tuesday in front of a small audience who had gathered at beach to witness the meeting.
The couple spent the afternoon drinking wine and chatting on a boat on the Picton harbour before going to dinner at DA’s Barn Restaurant & Bar where staff said sparks were flying from early on.
The bar’s co-owner Gina Williams said the couple were ‘all cuddly’ by the end of the evening when they were in the garden bar.
She said staff were discussing which famous actors would play them in the movie of their romantic tale.
Other staff members said there was ‘magic’ and a ‘close connection’ between the giddy pair.
They were still on the date when they spoke to Daily Mail Australia later that night.
Mr Chalmers said the date was going ‘fantastically’.
‘We had a bottle of sauv blanc and sparkling pinot gris. We had a great night. Now we’re grabbing a box of cheap beers… and we’re going to have a party,’ he said.
When asked if there will be a second date, Mr Chalmers joked to Daily Mail Australia: ‘I’m not too sure. You might have to ask me tomorrow just in case I’ve made an ass of myself.’
He added that his and Ms Milne’s story proved the world was not such a bad place.
‘There’s a lot of s**t in the world but there’s a lot of love in the world,’ he said.
At 10pm local time, the couple sounded like they were still having a good time as Mr Chalmers passed his phone over to Milne who described the whole experience as ‘surreal’.
‘I had no idea it would go the way it has gone,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘[The date has] been going alright, we’ve had a few glasses of wine.
‘It was overshadowed by every other person in Picton and… [this] very sweet thing it could have been has become this huge public thing.
‘It was very embarrassing. I’m not someone who is used to the spotlight. Thankfully he took me away from [the attention at the meeting point].’
Milne also played coy when asked if the couple would be seeing each other again.
‘We haven’t even finished this one because of everyone’s attention but maybe,’ she said.
‘We need to get over this one first. We’re really struggling to find our own space.’
Milne and Mr Chalmers made headlines when a hand-painted note made by the artist started doing rounds on the internet.
In her note, titled ‘Is this you?’, Milne – who studied at Glasgow School of Arts before holidaying in New Zealand – invited Mr Chalmers to meet her on the same beach on Tuesday.
She said she had not been expecting the hype surrounding her handwritten note.
With a bottle of champagne in his hand for their first meeting, Mr Chalmers walked over to where Milne was sitting and said: ‘Hello, I’m William, you know you could have just asked for my number.
‘Let’s go somewhere and have a drink away from everyone,’ he told her, as the crowd watching their date clapped and cheered.
Mr Chalmers came forward on Sunday morning to reveal himself as the mystery man.
On Monday, he told Daily Mail Australia he planned on heading down to the picturesque spot to ask his brunette admirer on a date for the evening.
The New Zealander said he first heard of the poster when his housemate came home at 3am on Saturday night and woke him up.
‘He was carrying on and telling me about a poster that two German girls had told him about that described me,’ Mr Chalmers said.
‘He knew it was me because I’m the only guy in Picton who has star tattoos, Johnny-Bravo hair and a labradoodle.’
Mr Chalmers said he and his housemate drove down to the shore in the dark to try and find the note, and even when he saw it for himself, he had a hard time believing it was real.
‘I was sitting on the grass on Friday watching the sea… you were playing with your dog. You ran past me and smiled,’ it said.
‘Would you like to go for a drink/coffee/walk??? I’m in Wellington just now, my ferry arrives back in Picton on Tuesday 3rd.
‘I’m in town for 1 night only… But let’s see how things go… On the off-chance you are single, remember who I am and would like to meet for a drink/coffee/walk.
‘I’ll be sitting on the grass, watching the sea from 1-1.30pm onwards on Tuesday… Maybe you’ll run past again?!?’
On Monday, Mr Chalmers said his mother had called him because she had been told of the sign and thought it was such a coincidence that the man described in the sign had star tattoos as well.
‘When I told her that it was me, she started freaking out and telling everyone in the office,’ he said.
‘She’s all for me going down. She told me that she didn’t raise me to not show up, so that’s what I’m going to do.
‘It’s a bit overwhelming, I’ve never had something like this happen before. In high school if you passed a note the teacher would just take it off you.’
‘Picton is a pretty small town and from the amount of people who have told me they’re going to come down and watch what happens it sounds like everyone I know will be there.’
Ms Milne may have had some inkling of the stir the note has caused, pleading with the public to not have the sign removed from the premises.
‘In the spirit of happy endings, give this sign a chance to be seen by the right eyes,’ she penned.
‘It may even bring a dozen or so people back on Tuesday, intrigued… who is this girl with the long brown hair and the boy with the star tattoos and the dog and will they meet for a drink?
‘I will, on my return to Picton on Tuesday, remove it myself… Whatever the ending may be. Thank you!’
