This year, handbags are on the agenda. So what's in the handbag of a perfect woman? Wanaka reporter Marjorie Cook examines contestants Michelle Osborne and Tasha Jones.
You will not catch Michelle Osborne (21) taking a handbag to work. She is a farm labourer on Mt Aspiring Station and only takes what she can fit in her jeans back pocket.
She has got handbags - a whole drawer full - and started her collection aged about 12 with a "wee square black one with one pocket that only lasted a few months".
So when she drives the dusty 50km trip in to Wanaka for the annual Perfect Woman Competition next weekend, it's certain she will be fully hand-bagged and equipped for any eventuality.
"I've got a can or bottle opener, a credit card, lip gloss, male contraceptives [at this point she waves a elastrator - a device for tailing lambs - at me], a lighter and a multitool," Ms Osborne said, as she emptied the contents of her large black polyurethane bag on to a wine barrel handily positioned at the Bullock Bar at the weekend.
But she was keeping things absolutely quiet when asked about her top three essential items, not wanting to spoil next week's fun.
Real estate agent Tasha Jones (28) was also jealously guarding her three key survival items until next week but she was not ashamed to display her massive, cream and blue, floral cotton, capaciously tardis-like handbag.
But sheer coincidence, both bags originated from Glassons, though Ms Jones' bag was selected for her by her mother.
So was her first handbag, a Barbie handbag she was given when she was aged just 6.
Ms Jones' bag contained a change of clothes (she was going to work later, but often takes spare clothes in case an important outing suddenly arises), perfume and a bottle opener.
"Every trusty girl has a bottle opener," Ms Jones said.
By the time she added keys, five lipsticks, three pens, business cards, wallet, cellphone, sunglasses, identification and other personal items, Ms Jones seemed dangerously in need of a suitcase worth of capacity for next week's competition.
"It would make a good nappy bag," Perfect Woman co-ordinator Sarah Perriam said.
"In fact, you could get a whole baby in there."
Wanaka women do carry handbags, although many look suspiciously like backpacks. Most are "creative, sling types" and a few are Gucci or leather, the women said.
"Especially down here, girls do have handbags and do use handbags. But when you go out, if it doesn't fit in, it doesn't go," Ms Jones said.
Although she sports a large mumsy bag in a Laura Ashley-style print, Ms Jones insists she is fussy about what she totes around.
"I don't like just any old handbag. If something catches my eye, that's it. I will use it until it's dead, even if it is just hanging together by a safety pin."
Handbags must also be big enough to carry discreetly a bottle of wine or vodka although Ms Jones, who also works in a restaurant, says taking your own alcohol to an establishment and drinking it in the toilet is not cool.
She evicts women who do that.
Despite carrying enormous, "how-could-you-possibly-not-fall-over-that-on-your-way-out" handbags, some women still seem able to leave them behind.
Ms Osborne did just that at the Bullock Bar recently, but her bag was returned with all its contents the next day. (Perhaps the knackering equipment revealed something about the owner that made the finder unwilling to tamper with it?)
Unsurprisingly, both women have suffered handbag trauma at the hands of customs officials when travelling overseas, with Ms Jones once needing 10 minutes to repack everything.
Both have competed in the Perfect Woman competition before.
Ms Osborne competed for the first time last year and was third, while Ms Jones is returning for her third bid at the title.
She was ninth last year.
