'At last I've won a pageant'

Lonneke Botello is not the archetypal beauty queen. At 23, the Doubtless Bay woman is a clinical nutritionist and personal trainer, a St John ambulance volunteer and studying to become an emergency medical technician, who describes herself as farm girl who has only this year learned to apply make-up properly.

But now she is Queen of the World New Zealand 2013, and will fly to Berlin next month to join 86 other contenders from around the world for the final.

Lonneke began her career on the catwalk in Kaitaia earlier this year, where she was second runner-up to Miss Far North. And while not hooked, she vowed to keep going until she won a pageant, then move on.

"Finally I've won a pageant," were her first words after she won the Queen title (along with the interview and swimsuit sections) in Auckland, but Berlin will be her swansong.

After Miss Far North she entered Miss Universe New Zealand (where Kaingaroa teenager Priscilla de Groen Hutchinson made the final 10). Then came Miss Bikini, where she reached the semi-finals, and before that event was even over she had been invited to try for Queen of the World.

"I'd never heard of it. I had to look it up," she said.

Now she's busy getting preparing for Berlin (which she visited last year on her OE, and where friends are eagerly awaiting her return). Alarnya Garton has lent her an evening dress, and she has her swimsuit and national costume (Dutch), courtesy of her late grandmother. (Lonneke's mother Rixt is of Dutch and Indonesian descent, father Leon is American Indian/Mexican).

She leaves for Berlin on November 27, and said yesterday that she was relishing the chance to represent New Zealand and to promote what she does to help people.

"That's my main goal, to promote health and fitness, especially to young women, to show them that they don't have to conform to what other people think they should be. I want them to know that they shouldn't try to be someone else," she said.

Her immediate goal though was to raise the money she needs to get to Berlin, over the next three weeks. She will be fundraising hard, and has set up a Facebook page (newzealandqueenoftheworld2013 - lonneke) which has a link to a donation page. Part of every dollar given will go to St John at Doubtless Bay.

Any contribution, "Even if it's just something I can raffle at the market," will be very gratefully accepted.