Kirsty Lay

Kirsty Lay died peacefully on Monday 28 September 2026 at the age of 64. Her family's death notice did not state a cause or place of death, and no reputable outlet published further medical detail, so the circumstances remain private.

News of her death was picked up by Christchurch and national media, including the NZ Herald, which remembered her as the city's Face of the Eighties and as a pioneering New Zealand model who later built a second career in tourism and business. Messages of condolence were invited via the family notice. She was survived by her children Holly and Max, her father John, her siblings, her partner Wayne, and her former husband Steve.

Kirsty Anne Lay was born around 1961 or 1962 and grew up connected to Christchurch, New Zealand. Public records and later business filings also used the married name Kirsty Anne Smith. Exact childhood details were kept largely private; what became public was the sudden leap from local life into national attention when she entered, and won, the Revlon Face of the Eighties television modelling competition.

She later recalled feeling like a fish out of water when she won, saying her mouth fell open and she "lost the plot" with surprise, and that if she could do it again she would, calling it one of the best and most developmental experiences of her life. The win set her on a path few New Zealand models of her generation managed: a sustained international career.

After Face of the Eighties, Lay worked as a model in New York for much of the 1980s, represented by Ford Models. Coverage of her death described her as one of New Zealand's most successful international models of that era, known for what colleagues called a movie-star smile. The combination of a televised local contest and a New York agency contract helped put New Zealand modelling on a wider map.

She later moved into business on both sides of the industry she knew. She became an owner of Exposure Model Agency and, known in business circles as Kirsty Smith, co-owned Skydive Queenstown Limited Group with her former husband Steve and Lindsay and Robynne Williams, operating NZONE Skydive Queenstown and Skydive Paradise. Company records also list her as a director of related skydiving ventures. Her LinkedIn profile described her as founder and quality assurance consultant for the New Zealand Skydiving School near Methven, and as a former chief executive and shareholder.

Lay made her home in Christchurch and was the mother of Holly and Max. She was the daughter of John Lay and the late Lyndsay Lay, and sister to Nicki, Janine and Michael. In later years her partner was Wayne; she had previously been married to Steve, with whom she shared skydiving business interests.

In 2018, when she was 55, she was stopped in Queenstown with a breath-alcohol reading far over the legal limit and later sentenced in the Wellington District Court to supervision, a fine and a short driving ban. It was a rare public stumble in an otherwise quieter later life focused on family and business rather than the runway.

Lay's legacy spans two public chapters: the 1980s modelling breakthrough that took a Christchurch contest winner to Ford Models in New York, and the later role she played in New Zealand adventure tourism and model-agency business. For a generation of New Zealanders she remained the Face of the Eighties; for Queenstown and Canterbury business circles she was Kirsty Smith, the co-owner who helped run one of the South Island's best-known skydiving brands.

Tributes after her death stressed both the glamour of her early career and the steadier presence she became as a mother and businesswoman back in Christchurch. Her path from television contest to international modelling to entrepreneurship remains a landmark New Zealand fashion and tourism story.