Pageant News Bureau - New Zealand

A nice lady from Niue

Photos courtesy of Monique's Model Management, Auckland, New Zealand

We don't often refer to PNB models by their first names. But in the case of Michelle Doris Moira Kalaisi Folau, we'll make an exception. We'll just call her Michelle.

She comes from the small Pacific island of Niue, a self-governing dependency of New Zealand.

The famous explorer Captain Cook, who was the first Westerner to see Niue, called it Savage Island. He claimed its people weren't friendly. And when you see Michelle wielding a gun, you may suspect he was right.

But Michelle is not a hostile person at all. She's sweet and friendly. The gun is just a prop from a modeling shoot. And when she made an appearance on "Xena, Warrior Princess," she was just acting. Really.

Michelle was Miss Niue 1994, and in November 2000 she will represent New Zealand in the Face of Tourism Millennium Girl Ball. In July 2000, she's scheduled to judge at the Miss City of Sails competition in Auckland. She's a choreographer, a dancer and, obviously, a model.

But how could Captain Cook have gotten it so wrong? We suspect he simply had his islands mixed up, and he didn't reach Niue at all. That's the sort of thing that happened to Columbus, and Captain Cook was in a much bigger ocean.