Supermodel to superguru
Rachel Hunter has walked the hottest runways and rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous, but now one of New Zealand’s most famous faces is more interested in mantras and breathwork.
Rachel Hunter is no stranger to travel. Now 51, the Auckland native began modelling as a teenager, walking runways and starring in photo shoots all over the world, after a rare blood disease curtailed her dream of being a professional dancer.
She’s gone on tour with rock musicians, and visited countries on almost every continent for her 2015 TV series Rachel Hunter’s Tour of Beauty.
But when she left managed isolation after arriving in New Zealand early this year, Hunter felt completely overwhelmed.
‘‘After quarantine I went and isolated again,’’ she said. ‘‘I was like, this is a lot.’’
Like many around the world, Hunter, who is based in the hard-Covid-hit city of Los Angeles, has spent much of the past year in lockdown.
‘‘It’s been a process to be able to come back to an environment where there’s no masks and there’s not a lot of social distancing.’’
For Hunter, the pandemic came as a surprise; she was on a 19-day silent retreat in India over the crucial period in early March last year when Covid-19 went from a virus identified in a Chinese province to a global threat.
And for many who read that headline, there was surprise that Hunter – the ‘‘Trumpet Girl’’-turnedsupermodel who cemented her place as one of New Zealand’s most famous exports when, aged 21 in 1990, she married rocker Rod Stewart – now devoted her time to yoga retreats.
Hunter’s days of catwalks and film sets seem to be behind her, and the photos she takes now are mostly for her Instagram feed.
From her perspective, it hasn’t been a sudden transition, she said.
Hunter has practised yoga for about 15 years, and credits her mother, Janeen Phillips, with sparking her interest in nonWestern approaches.
‘‘My mum was always into all sorts of different spiritual ways,’’ she said. ‘‘Meditation, different practices from Buddhist to Mormon – you name it, we kind of did it.’’
But it was her mother’s death, in May 2017, that pushed Hunter into pursuing yoga more seriously.
She nursed Phillips for the last 18 months of her life as she suffered from terminal cancer, an experience that had a profound effect on Hunter.
‘‘I asked her the question: What do you regret? She said, ‘I regret not being fully who I am, always worrying what will people think, what will people say’.’’
That was a ‘‘really pivotal moment’’ for Hunter. ‘‘It hit me very hard, made me self-reflect.’’ After Phillips’ death, Hunter went to India to ‘‘process the grief’’.
She intended to go for three weeks but wound up staying three months, and adjusting the focus of her life.
It changed her on a ‘‘cellular level’’. Hunter said she has completed more than 500 hours of yogic training, and has certifications in areas including yoga, meditation, and tantra.
She is in demand as a teacher, and her trip to New Zealand was meant to coincide with a headline spot at the NZ Spirit Festival. However, the event has been rescheduled due to the recent changes in Covid-19 alert levels.
The festival markets itself as being focused on ‘‘health and wellness’’, a term that is thrown around in myriad situations, and with which Hunter admitted she struggled.
She preferred ‘‘wellbeing’’, ‘‘because it has that fullness of being well. This being is well.’’
It worked with Hunter’s approach, which she described as ‘‘an integrated lifestyle’’.
That was what she hoped to impart to people who came to the festival, or to the other two retreats she will be hosting – alert levels allowing – in Tauranga and Akaroa, this month.
‘‘It’s not just sitting in a yoga position.’’
She wanted wellbeing to be readily available to everybody, which extended from organic food to government support for mental health – something she thought New Zealand was already excelling at.
‘‘When I came into the country I was really knocked over, they asked ‘How is your mental wellbeing?’ and I was just like wow, when has somebody ever asked you that when you come into the country.’’
Hunter praised New Zealand for its Covid response and the ‘‘team of 5 million’’ approach, but said a month after arriving she thought she ‘‘still [stood] six feet away from other people’’.
She called on a ‘‘huge toolbox’’ of coping mechanisms to help her, including yoga, mantra, and breathwork, but that didn’t mean she was immune to anxiety.
‘‘I do think the practices have helped, absolutely, but I do feel stuff, yeah. I’m a human being.’’
She missed her pre-Covid life, and particularly her children with Stewart, 28-year-old Renee – who has followed her mother into into yoga – and 26-year-old Liam, an ice hockey player, both of whom are in London.
But there were lessons to be learnt from Covid. When Hunter came out of that retreat almost a year ago, she posted to Instagram with a message about financial security and physical health.
‘‘This time (is) fragile as Health is our Wealth,’’ she wrote. ‘‘Financial is a trigger for us to panic & fear.’’
‘‘If there’s not healthy people, there is no work, which is what we’re seeing,’’ she clarified. ‘‘Our health is our wealth.’’
She didn’t expect everybody to be interested in yoga to the extent that she was but hoped learning more about it and the associated practices could help people from any walk of life to focus on holistic health.
‘‘The more we hear about it, the more we have that space to be able to say, I need a day off, or I just need some time to go for a walk.’’
Her own story, from a teen who overcame illness, left school without any qualifications, became an international celebrity and then a spiritual teacher, showed there was always capacity for learning.
‘‘You aren’t just one thing. You can change.’’
‘‘They asked ‘How is your mental wellbeing?’ and I was just like wow. When has somebody ever asked you that when you come into the country?’’