Rachel leaves jandals on famous Kaeo fence

Rachel Hunter left her footwear when she visited the now famous jandal fence. PHOTO/INSTAGRAM

Supermodel Rachel Hunter might not have left her heart in Kaeo when she visited the Far North town recently - but she did leave her jandals.

The ice cream-eating Kiwi icon has thrust Kaeo and its jandal fence into the limelight after posting a clip on her Facebook page which has been viewed tens of thousands of times.

The clip, posted on Tuesday, shows Hunter at a Kaeo service station where a wire fence has been decorated with at least 200 pairs of jandals.

After showing viewers the "brilliant" tribute to the New Zealand jandal, she pulls off her own jandals - a well-worn, basic black pair with a blob of chewing gum stuck to one sole - and wires them to the fence, all while eating a hokey pokey ice cream.

"The least I can do is give up my jandals," she says.

The Jandal Fence 👣 ... aka flip flops or thongs. Depending on which country your from . This was on January 2017 while on a roadtrip thru the northland ❤

Posted by Rachel Hunter on Monday, 9 January 2017

The clip came as a great surprise to jandal fence founder John Owens, co-owner of Kaeo Farm and Fuel. He had not seen any supermodels hang their jandals on his fence or sold any hokey pokey ice cream to the original Tip Top girl.

Mr Owens suspected she had filmed the clip several weeks ago when she was in Northland making an Air New Zealand safety video. She had earlier posted a photo of herself at Waitangi, where some of the filming took place.

Ms Hunter's tribute was "fabulous for the Far North", he said.

"It's just great for us to be seen in such a positive and bubbly light."

While a few radio personalities had donated their footwear to the fence, Ms Hunter was the most famous person to have added to the collection.

When he found out whose the jandals were, Mr Owens wired them on securely, labelled them with her name, and cut off the knobs so they couldn't be worn.

Ms Hunter's jandals were now in the fence's Hall of Fame alongside the very first pair donated by Eddie Metz, who was driving through Kaeo one day in 2005 when he stopped to buy a pair of jandals. He then donated his old ones and the jandal fence was born.

As of Thursday morning, Hunter's Kaeo clip had been viewed more than 47,000 times.