The Max Max: Fury Road star is fronting a new Tourism New Zealand campaign aimed at getting more people to cycle through the Land of the Long White Cloud.
The stunning model can be seen pedalling through some of New Zealand’s most spectacular scenery, navigating narrow suspension bridges and visiting a vineyard, a lavender farm and sheep station along the way.
Megan, who also fronted an Australian tourism campaign in Italy, is thrilled with the new new role because of her personal connection with New Zealand.
“My mother is actually from there, she’s half-Maori so anything to do with New Zealand I’m always on board,” says Megan.
Megan told The Morning Show that she’d lost touch with her roots as a child but is keen to catch-up.
“When I was younger, probably rather ignorantly of me, I was never motivated to learn much about my heritage,” admits Megan, 40, who gave birth to her first child, son River, in May 2014.
“More because it hadn’t really occurred to me, but I think as I’ve got older, and now I’ve become a mum I’ve wanted to learn a bit more about it so I can hopefully one day pass on all that knowledge to River as well.”
Megan says the campaign was also fantastic motivation to reignite her passion for cycling.
She says she put cycling on the back-burner while pregnant with River and has mostly kept fit since with yoga and Pilates.
“Typical first time mum, you’re so pedantic about everything you do and eat, so I stopped cycling and then I had bub and I didn’t do any exercise for a while because I wanted to let my body heal.
“It was really quite bizarre because I was sitting and looking at my bike thinking ‘I really want to get back into cycling’, when this offer came about.”
Although 20-month-old River stayed home with footballer dad Shaun Hampson while she was filming the campaign, Megan says she’d love to return with the whole family and ride the Otago central rail trail and the timber trail.
“You can do all sorts of things along the way, like trout fishing, kayaking, and you also get more of an insight into the Maori culture.”
For Megan’s thoughts on post-baby beauty and how women judge other women, click here to read an earlier chat she had with The Carousel.
