An experience never to be forgotten

Kaingaroa teenager Priscilla de Groen Hutchinson is back home after her tilt at the Miss Universe New Zealand title. She didn't win the crown and won't be representing New Zealand at the world final in Moscow, but she did achieve her goal of making the top 10, and she did leave Auckland with a job offer - teaching English to children and teenagers in Thailand.

The 20 finalists spent a week in Thailand, where they were filmed, photographed and immersed themselves in the culture, in Priscilla's case so successfully that the Thai Ambassador to New Zealand offered her the job the day after the finale at SkyCity.

"I'm actually glad I didn't win now. In fact you could say I had a lucky escape," 19-year-old Priscilla said.

"If I had I wouldn't have been offered this chance. And the Ambassador told me to keep my eyes peeled while I'm there for other job opportunities."

Her long-term aspiration was still teaching dance, but the Miss Universe experience, while memorable and valuable, had not been entirely positive.

"I was really happy to make the top 10. Fifty per cent of the result was based on public voting, so that showed how much support I had, but there was talk of the top five being pre-ordained," she said.

"I don't know, but it's no big deal. This was the first time I had done anything like this [although she did contest, and win, the Miss Far North New Zealand title in Kaitaia earlier in the year], but for the girl who won this was her 40th pageant, and it's been a big thing in her family for years, so she had a great support system.

"It was all good until after the 'boot camp' in Auckland. I can't say it was a pleasant experience or that I enjoyed it after that, but I learned a lot and I'm glad I did it. I won't be doing anything like this again though, and in all honesty I couldn't recommend it to anyone else."

Priscilla wasn't the only contestant who had issues with the competition and the people who ran it. however. The backpacker accommodation in Auckland over the last week before the finale had been abysmal, she said, there had been a total lack of interest in the contestants' personal safety, there had been no contracts or release forms, for some at least there had been no sign of the promised DVDs or photos, there were no chaperones and no sign of the $500 promised upon completion of the 'entrepreneurial challenge'.

"One girl said she wanted to leave, and was told it would cost her $10,000," she added.

And while the dissatisfaction of one teenager might be discounted, Priscilla's mother Jennifer shared her sentiments, from a position of knowledge and experience. She had worked with modelling doyen Maysie Bestall-Cohen for a number of years, she said, including the role of her PA when she staged the Miss Auckland pageant in the early 1980s.

"That was a huge show. I know how these things should be run," she said.

She believed the 20 finalists had been presented in an exaggerated fashion, and that basically they had been used.

Priscilla and her parents were now happy to put it all behind them and be grateful for all that had been gained from the experience, but they were also planning to let the Miss Universe franchise owners in the United States know how they believed the brand had been tarnished.

The final show itself, televised live from SkyCity, had been "a bit of a joke". Many in the audience left at half time, Jennifer said, while the production crew comprised four young university students who had not done anything like that before and were clearly out of their depth.

"I felt sorry for them. They had a lot of work to do," Priscilla said.

Meanwhile the next six months is a little up in the air. Priscilla hopes to find work in the Far North so she can save some money before she leaves for Thailand, and also has some loose ends to tie up in Auckland, which might well be good news for her brother Vinnie. He is unlikely to have forgotten how his big sister once enjoyed telling him to sit up and pay attention as she practised her skills as an aspiring teacher, skills that she will soon be using on no doubt more receptive students.