The year-old also works as a prostitute. I remember thinking this isn't so bad. I threw up later when I realised what I had done, but the more I did it the less sick I felt afterwards," she says.
Jayme, 34, doesn't look like what you'd expect an average prostitute to look like. She is not the stereotypical 'street walker' that most of us are familiar with from TV - malnourished, wearing a short, tight skirt and a stomach-baring boob tube. Getting ready for work after a call from a regular client, these days she takes what she can get. Men who used to visit prostitutes now have more access to pornography on the internet and can "service themselves" instead of calling a working girl, Jayme says.
However, Kelly says she has more than enough work to keep her nights busy. I'm sure I will give it up eventually but it's fine for now. But Kelly may be the exception rather than the rule. Regional co-ordinator for the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective Carolyn August says a lot of prostitutes are struggling to make the kind of money they made in the past. We have also had a recession, which affects the sex industry as well and that is still on-going.
Technology and the introduction of cyber space has also played a role in the changing face of the world's oldest profession. In the last few years the number of working girls in Taranaki and around the country has dropped significantly. Some girls might work all the time, while others may just work one day a month when she needs money.
New Plymouth currently has three brothels operating in the central city - Harlow's Bordello, BB's Massage Parlour and Hearts'n'Armour - and there are about 15 private operations working at any one time.
