Arriving from New York at 9am, in our studio by 10am and on our cover by 11am. Phew! Bringing you Miranda was a mad, fun race

In my mind I don’t look that great,” says Miranda Kerr. “But thanks for the compliment!” The supermodel is looking in the mirror after travelling for more than a day, and greets the suggestion that she somehow still looks miraculously gorgeous with a modest shrug. She’s used to compliments, and she’s also used to this sort of madness.

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“You know what I’ve done in the past seven to 10 days?” she asks me, then proceeds to recite a travel schedule that is exhausting just to listen to. “I was in New York, and then flew to LA for the Espy Awards, back to New York to shoot a magazine cover, back to LA for a Victoria’s Secret TV shoot, then from LA to Miami.” It goes on and on: several stops later and back at home in Manhattan, the 26-year-old got an ear infection – “And I never get sick” – that delayed her departure to Sydney by a day. The result: the girl from Gunnedah has arrived for her exclusive Grazia shoot after 28 hours of non-stop travel, direct from Sydney airport.

“People think it’s very glamorous, but it’s not when you fly for that long, get off the plane and come straight to work without even having a shower!,” she says of her hectic life as one of the world’s highest-paid models. Not that she’s complaining; she knows she’s got it too good for that.

Does she ever stop and look at her life – the glamour, the travel, the money and a certain superstar boyfriend named Orlando Bloom – and think: wow? The David Jones ambassador pauses briefly, then says: “I am extremely grateful for everything I have and everything that has happened to me, I wouldn’t change it for the world. While I have it, I’d be mad not to embrace it. But if I ended up being a naturopath in Gunnedah, I’d still say wow!” It’s all about “living in the moment”.

Of course, it’s not all rosy. There’s that insane travel schedule. And then there’s the biggest sacrifice – her privacy. Dating Orlando, she can’t move far these days without rumours and camera lenses trailing in her wake. “It baffles me,” she says of the intense interest in her private life, admitting she has never googled herself because she’s afraid of what she’d read. “That would be scary.”

There are rumours galore, most of them, Miranda insists, untrue. On those persistent stories that she and Orlando are engaged, she offers an emphatic “No!”, delivered firmly but with her trademark smile in place…

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Miranda Kerr wears Dolce & Gabbana shirt, $1399; ksubi shorts, $240; Seafolly bandeau top, $69.95 and bottoms, $49.95; Christian Louboutin heels, $1200; Dior short coin necklace, $1100; Fabienne silver crystal necklace, $89.95. All available at David Jones (13 33 57). Photograph by Simon Lekias. Styled by Mark Vassallo.