Wannabe models: pack your bikini and coat

Home is the clifftop luxury dwelling. Photo / Herald on Sunday

The finalists in New Zealand's Next Top Model show have been told to pack "a bikini and a winter coat" as filming for the second series of the hit TV show gets under way.

The 13 wannabe models are preparing to move into the $7.2 million clifftop mansion in Castor Bay on Auckland's North Shore where they will live together.

The cameras will track their every move as they cook, swim, practise their catwalk - and no doubt get into catfights - for the duration of the show.

The show's publicist, Jade Rook, said the girls have been instructed to be ready for anything, and to bring an up-to-date passport.

"They've been told to pack both a bikini and a winter coat."

Model hopefuls for the cut-throat TV3 reality show were whittled down from auditions all around the country last month, to find the best 33 potential models between 16 and 25-years-old.

The lucky final 13 girls were told on Thursday that they had made it through to the final stage.

They were selected by host Sara Tetro, former model Chris Sisarich and model/actor Colin Mathura-Jeffree.

The mansion, owned by millionaire Seeby Woodhouse, also housed the MasterChef New Zealand contestants during filming last year.

In 2008, Woodhouse leased his now-sold Campbell's Bay mansion to the contestants in the first season of Top Model.

The massive 890sq m house has eight bedrooms, five bathrooms, three fireplaces, more than a dozen televisions, a pool, a gym and a sauna.