Inside the mind of Miss New Zealand

Georgia Waddington crowned Miss New Zealand in June 2023 at her first ever pageant

It’s not even midday, but Georgia Waddington is already on the move.

Bustling airport terminal ambience intermingles with the lush sounds of faint static only a phone call provides. The winner of Miss New Zealand 2023 is waiting by her gate to catch a flight back to her hometown of Ōtautahi, gracefully multi-tasking an interview while keeping up the cool girl airport aesthetic that only a pageant queen can uphold.

Waddington is no stranger to a morning airport mish. Being crowned Miss NZ at 22, Waddington spent those formative years after high school in pursuit of a job with picture-perfect makeup, a gracious smile, and a banger of an outfit.

No, not a pageant queen - a flight attendant.

Waddington studied travel and tourism pre-Covid, after which “obviously the travel industry wasn’t thriving.” She ended up going into a corporate job and doing social media on the side before her career in pageantry took off.

Having made the move up north a few months ago, Waddington has ended up “in between two places,” constantly visiting family and friends back home. In a lineup of all her five siblings, Waddington lands squarely as number four, on either side of two older sisters, an older brother, and a younger brother. She has the “most awesome support network,” and remains close with her family, particularly her parents, despite living on different islands.

They weren’t surprised when Waddington told them about her decision to run for Miss New Zealand. She says fondly, “I feel like they all pictured that I would do something like that, and it was myself that didn’t think I would.” However, her family may have been surprised when she was crowned with the title, given it was her first ever pageant.

To reiterate that: Waddington became Miss New Zealand 2023 in her maiden pageant.

Georgia Waddington winning the title of Miss New Zealand 2023.

The move into pageantry was “very random” for Waddington. She received a message from the director of Miss NZ, Meghan Kenney, back in December of 2022 asking her if she wanted to participate in this year’s pageant.

“I was a little bit hesitant because I just wasn’t very sure,” said Waddington.

After a lengthy phone call with the director and an innumerable number of questions from Waddington, she ended up “really wanting to do it. Everything she’d [director] achieved, I was like ‘wow, that’s amazing’, I would love to try to live up to that.”

Waddington said she “always wanted to do something great,” and the pageant was her opportunity.

Pageantry in New Zealand is vastly different to the beauty pageants depicted in cult classics like Miss Congeniality or Dumpling. Instead of being held over a single weekend, the Miss New Zealand pageant spans across six months with focuses on personal development and charity work. Those involved in Miss New Zealand attend Women’s Leadership Conferences, a Presenter’s Platform, head-to-head debates, development panels and complete a pageant boot camp. There are still events that you’d expect to be in a pageant like a talent showcase, interview sessions, charity presentations, evening wear evaluation and a swimwear presentation.

Waddington describes the pageant as a personal growth course, “you get to go and do all these activities to learn how to public speak [...] we learn so much about Māori culture and go on Marae stays. There was just so much to it that it really makes you grow as a person, and I’ve gained so much confidence doing it.”

The central focus of Miss New Zealand is charity work. Waddington speaks with pride over the phone as she mentions the two charities she chose to support for her pageant campaign, I Am Hope and Brave NZ. The latter is “all about sexual harm and sexual awareness. So I went to schools all across New Zealand and spoke to thousands of students about it and about consent, healthy relationships and how to stay safe online. It was awesome to be able to spread awareness about something that’s not spoken about a lot.”

Georgia Waddington with founder of Brave NZ, Jess Tyson.

Typically, participants will only work with one charity, but Waddington felt doing two just made sense as “there is a very strong link between the two.” For her work with I Am Hope, she held a silent auction emceed by Mike Pero and had founder and mental health advocate Mike King to speak at the event. She raised over $6000 for mental health in New Zealand which was “really cool and so special.”

Left: Georgia Waddington with Mike King, founder of Gumboot Friday and I Am Hope. Right: Waddington in front of her charity fundraiser which raised over $6000 for mental health in New Zealand.

Waddington’s passion for mental health and wellbeing has transferred across to her next endeavour: Miss International. In October, she will compete in a two-week long pageant hosted in Japan. She’s already started work on her UN Sustainable Development goals with the launch of her eBook promoting healthy morning routines which focuses on self-love, gratitude, goal setting and meditation.

Beyond charity work, Waddington had rehearsals every weekend in Auckland, which “weren’t compulsory but I really wanted to give this my all. So, I guess that’s what I did, I made it work and put a lot of effort into it.”

Despite the rigorous dedication required to capture the title of Miss New Zealand, Waddington wouldn’t change a thing. “Obviously, there’s good and bad times with anything but I think that on the whole it was so positive. Even though there were difficult moments, I wouldn’t quit because I’d put so much into it.”

Her perfunctory work ethic, while innate, was reinforced by her parents. “My parents are super, super hard working so I was so lucky to grow up looking up to them and having that work ethic of putting your all into things and working really hard.”

All the time and dedication Waddington put in culminated in the final night of the pageant. Not only did she walk away with the title of Miss New Zealand, but won awards for Best in Evening Wear, Best in Swimwear, Miss Fitness, Top Model, Social Media Queen, and Charity Queen.

A burgeoning talent, now enjoying the short stasis of life between moments that turn into milestones. Always looking forward, but gratefully keeping the past in her pocket.

My questions come to an end, and she breathes out a resounding sound of relief with a laugh, “That is actually the most perfect timing, my flight is literally about to board.” In a few months she will board again, this time to Japan, continuing along an irised trajectory set back in June.

But for now, she’s headed home.