KEY POINTS:
Rachel Hunter proves she still has what it takes to lick the competition as she enjoys a moment of nostalgia - re-creating the famous Tip Top icecream commercial that helped propel her to stardom 22 years ago.
The model made her onscreen debut in a Trumpet ad back in 1985 as a tanned, long-haired teen who leaped out of a red Volkswagen convertible and rushed into a dairy to buy an icecream.
Yesterday, the 38-year-old former lingerie and swimsuit model and one-time wife of rocker Rod Stewart visited the Tip Top factory in Auckland to accept a cheque for $25,000 for the charity For the Sake of Our Children.
But she also got a chance to sample Tip Top's new Jelly Tip Trumpet, which coincidentally went on sale for about $2.40 this week. When adjusted for inflation, the new Trumpet is only slightly more expensive than the original $1 Trumpet Rachel was famously photographed tasting as a fresh-faced 16-year-old schoolgirl.
"It's very, very good," she said as she ate the new icecream in front of a throng of photographers and reporters. "The icecream down here is so good ... it's so creamy."
Rachel was accompanied by her her children Renee and Liam and her mother, who all watched amused.
She said she wasn't able to get Trumpets in Los Angeles, but Tip Top had in the past sent her some hokey pokey ones, her favourites.
Rachel, who is in New Zealand for 10 days, said it was great to be reunited with Tip Top after so many years. "I never dreamed I would be back."
She reminisced about the now-famous Trumpet commercial, most of which was shot up north.
When everyone got back to Auckland, "they needed one more shot . . of someone licking icecream and my agent said, 'Can you go and do it?' It was in Mt Eden or something. I went down there, licked the icecream for like 10 minutes and then left and never really thought of anything else. "
"It's just part of being a New Zealander, what needs to get done gets done and that's all there is to it. It's not like you get swallowed up into being something you are not."
Rachel is looking forward to Fashion Week, where her new swimwear range Lola will be featured.
"Everyone kind of thinks out of the box here, which is great, so it's going to be interesting and exciting to see the different fashions and stuff."
