From Te Araroa to the universe pageant

Te Ara Hunt is a Muay Thai-fighting, gumboot-wearing, down-to-earth East Coast girl, who has stepped into a whole new universe.
The 22-year-old from Te Araroa is a top 20 finalist in the Miss Universe New Zealand pageant.

She is proud to represent the region, and wants to use the pageant as a platform to highlight the unique qualities and people of the East Coast.

“Pageants are foreign to me. I spend a lot of my time in the country catching fish and riding horses.

“It was my family who pushed me to get involved in the pageant. I gave in after a lot of pushing and when my application was accepted, my family were excited.”

While the pageant world is new to Te Ara, she is embracing the challenge.

“I wanted to enter something that is huge but maintain who I am — the East Coast gumboot girl.

“My dream has always been to work with people, hence the job I am in and the social work studies that I am doing.

“I work at Te Kuwatawata in Gisborne, which is a gateway into mental health services. We support people in the community with any kind of distress.

“I really enjoy pushing myself out of my comfort zone and I guess this is another thing where I’ve really thrown myself in the deep end.”

Te Ara attended a ‘‘Stiletto Camp’’ recently, with an intake of 40 competitors.

The top 20 finalists were selected from that camp and they will attend a special retreat in Thailand in two weeks.

A major component of the competition is an entrepreneur challenge, where contestants raise funds within their community for Variety – The Children’s Charity, as well as raising funds towards their pageant journey.

The contestant who raises the most money gets an automatic spot into the top three.

There is also a public voting component to the competition that will count towards half of the final scores.

“I knew that it was going to be a bit more challenging for me, as opposed to the other girls, because I come from a smaller community and they’re all from major cities like Auckland and Christchurch. They have a lot more experience than I do in these types of competitions.

“But I also remembered that in a small community, you’re a lot more intimate with people, you know a lot of people.

“I thought about the different talents that are within my family and the community.

“Since the top 20 announcement, I’ve had a lot of family members offer to do ta moko raffles, artists offer to do T-shirt designs, even farmers offering mutton for hangi fundraisers.”

With a huge amount of support already coming through, Te Ara says it is the community who are her greatest drive.

“My family have been very supportive, reminding me of who I am and not to get caught up in the hype.

“I hope next year that more young females from here give it a go. I know so many beautiful girls from Gisborne and the East Coast.”

The Miss Universe New Zealand 2018 grand final will be at SKYCITY Theatre in Auckland on August 4.

People can vote for Te Ara by visiting the online link