As it was, the runner-up was too busy fretting about the other Miss New Zealand hopefuls to consider how close she’d come to a congratulatory peck from pageant host Bob Barker.
“So, what does the 46-year-old Aucklander reckon now?
“Nah, it would have been my worst nightmare. I dodged a bullet … Seriously, it’s just not my cup of tea,” says Wipani.
At best, she had been an accidental contender anyway. She didn’t know anything about the competition until the pageant’s producer spotted the then 17-year-old in a Ponsonby photographic studio.
“Why would I want to do that?” she’d said after his invitation.
“Well,” he replied, “you’ll get to go to Christchurch and you’ll get paid.”
“I’m there,” said Wipani.
And that was it. Until she looked at her wardrobe. “Mum … what do I wear?”
She was fully frocked-up when the girls were corralled for a photo after they landed in Christchurch. She found herself posing alongside Downes and the girl who would finish third: “That was weird.”
Then it was straight to work. Each day started at 7am with an aerobics class. As a late sleeper, Wipani was always last to arrive, running out in her pyjamas and clutching her track pants – before they were ferried off to various sites to shoot segments for the show.
“It was a blast and I loved Christchurch. I even ended up living there afterwards … with one of the show’s hairdressers.”
As for the event, Wipani says: “I had no sense of competing and as for winning, it never really occurred to me. But for the others, for someone like Lorraine, they were professional models and this was their chance at the world stage.”
Then there was the swimsuit parade. “That was really, really naff. I can remember standing there thinking ‘I wish I had a dressing gown or a jersey and I’d really like to be wearing pants’. I mean it was pretty chilly up there.”
It wasn’t until things got serious that Wipani realised how much some of her new friends had at stake. And that made her uncomfortable.
“I could see that with some of them, this was really important, and I started feeling awful about that. Then Mariska was named in third place and I thought “yay, she’s a lovely girl”. I was looking around to see how everyone was handling it when I heard my name called out as runner-up. It was very hard not to swear. I used to have a video of it and I’ve watched myself walking forward but looking backward, thinking ‘what the hell am I doing?’
“But then Lorraine won and everything was as it should have been. If I picture myself in her place on the world stage with Bob Barker and all that, well, I’m sure our judges would have wondered if they’d made a mistake. It’s not that I know I could have pulled it off, but I wouldn’t have won. They’d have pictured me in gumboots and black singlet. Then I’d have looked around, decided to stay, met some people and never come home.”
So she ended up at home, watching a teary Downes being crowned Miss Universe in the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, Missouri. “I was crying too, and clapping, and jumping up and down … she really deserved it, she’s a class act.”
Of course, that wasn’t the end for Wipani. Ian Mune cast her in Came A Hot Friday, then she was off travelling and working in film, television and theatre around the world before enjoying a lengthy stint as our “Lotto Lady.” She still appears in various productions while also working in a cafe.
“I wish I was rich and I wish I’d listened when people told me to save my money,” says Wipani. “But I was like yeah, yeah, yeah and then didn’t do anything … It’s been fun.”
