Miss Mount Maunganui is returning to the Bay, but with a different look.

After 60 years of the beauty pageant being held on Mount Main Beach, the competition is now moving online.


Sun Media journalist Zoe Hunter on stage at last year's competition. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

The public will make up 50 per cent of the voting online, with the other 50 per cent coming from the judges.

People wanting to enter the competition can head down to the pop-up Mr and Miss Mount station, opposite Mount Drury, tomorrow and Sunday.

From there, the pictures will be loaded to zmonline.com on January 5.

The photos will remain online for one week to allow the public to vote for their winner.

Thousands of dollars of prizes are up for grabs, including a prize pack from Sanctum Beauty Therapy and Spa, and Fuji Instax cameras for the runner-up.

The online competition is only going to be a one off, with central region brand engagement manager for NZME Matt Davy hoping to see the return of Miss Mount Maunganui in all its glory next year.

Former Miss Universe Lorraine Downes wore the crown and sash in the early 1980s, but even this beauty queen wasn't from the Mount.

Sun Media reporter Zoe Hunter knows first-hand what contestants have to go through from getting ready to being onstage.

In 2014, Zoe went undercover to experience the beauty competition for herself.

'I stood on stage wearing a bikini covering nothing but my unmentionables. It was the most vulnerable position I've ever been in,” explains Zoe.

'In heels, fake tan, and a full face of make-up at the beach, I felt out of place.”

While the competition aims to showcase the girls' personality and intelligence via answering a few simple questions and performing a talent, Zoe says 'I'm still standing in my two-piece”.

'At the end of the day, we're being judged and ranked on our physical attributes. So why am I here? Confidence.

'Knocked back by broken relationships and years of pretending my feelings weren't hurt, I decided to brave the stage and criticism coming my way. Not for attention, not for revenge – just to prove I could, to step out of my comfort zone.”

Some would say: 'Try skydiving or a bungy jump”, but for Zoe a bikini competition was enough.

The winning trio from last year's competition, third place winner Lacee Buzza, 19, from Queensland, first place winner and Miss Mount Maunganui Jane Brock, 21, from Auckland, and second place winner Brooke Naismith, 19, from Auckland. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

Miss Mount Maunganui 2013 contestants: second place winner Sarah Halvorson, 20, from Whangarei, Miss Mount Maunganui Ceri McVinnie, 22, from Matamata, and third place winner Talitha Barton, 19, from Te Puke. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

Miss Mount Maunganui 2012: Jazmin Tohai, centre, with runner up Maddison Brown, left, and third place winner Amber Prior. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

Lorraine Downes, Miss Mount Maunganui 1983.

Miss Mount Maunganui 1967, 17-year-old Robyn Grubb.

The contestants from 1964.

Competitors from 1965.