Top Muddle: The cook leaves, reality checks in

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Fashion's about suffering, says Colin Mathura-Jeffree, as he wraps the girls in tight, latex-like saris and sends them down the stairs in high heels to practise their catwalk.

Losing Aminah last week has startled the 13 remaining contestants into the reality of the competition. They're not just on an extended girls' weekend at a fancy apartment. Aminah was the resident chef, so now they're all fumbling in the kitchen, using taco seasoning to spruce up their mashed potatoes and washing the dishes with hand soap.

But they get another taste of glitz when they're picked up in their Hummerzine and taken to Glassons in Newmarket to parade new season's clothes for New Zealand celebrities.

Arihana really gets into the groove, though she's later told to lose the "circus freak", and Rosanagh, the pretty Polish face, glides past the judging panel like a vampire.

AJ asserts her position as ditz of the year by walking the wrong way, prompting her usual flood of tears, while Bianca gets all "freaky outy" when she hears the audience snigger.

Sara Tetro, Bianca's champion, says she just needs to work on her confidence, but the editor of Cleo magazine seems positively scared of the weird kid's mean look.

In the end, it's ethereal, romantic - and supposedly "plus-sized" - Aroha who takes the prize of a $1000 wardrobe and a car.

She's stoked, and secretly, the others seem very pleased that she beat precious wee Tyne, who the judges also love. They say she looks like "the fun girl at the party", but anyone who's been at the model house knows she is anything but.

Pettiness is part of the package when 13 doses of oestrogen are left simmering away in an apartment. You can't blame the young women for going a bit gaga when they later pose with male models.

"Damn Southland doesn't have boys like that, eh," Hillary gushes and Yanna tries so hard to "keep the party inside" that her face is all puckered in the photo shoot.

Issy fails to shine in her shiny dress, but in the end she's thrown a lifeline. Everyone's best friend Holly is told to walk instead.

Frankly, the background just got the better of her, Tetro says. Ouch. But Holly insists she's thankful her job has been held open for her back at Countdown in Oamaru.

Someone else in the house is probably thankful to have her friends back.

What: New Zealand's Next Top Model
When: Fridays, 7.30pm
Where: TV3