A right royal confrontation could be on the cards for Dunedin with Zara Phillips expected to fly into town to meet embattled husband Mike Tindall today.

Phillips made a surprise appearance at a charity fashion show in Auckland last night, where she managed to avoid any questions about her husband's bad behaviour at a Queenstown bar last week.

Tindall, the English rugby captain, was filmed cavorting with a mystery blonde in footage that made tabloid front-pages across the globe.

The newly-married couple have so far brushed the incident off, saying the woman was just an old friend.

However, the world class horsewoman has since rushed to New Zealand to meet Tindall, changing her competition schedule and surprising even the most up-to-date gossip columnists with her arrival.

In efforts to avoid media, Phillips' attendance at the CatWalk Spinal Cord Injury Trust event last night was not publicised, but she was spotted by Fairfax NZ photographers entering the venue just before 7pm.

Wearing a little black dress and a smile, Phillips, 30, showed no sign of cracking under the pressure put on by the international spotlight while speaking to attendees at the event.

"I'm massively proud and in awe of you guys," she said of Chris Quin, Jo Alison and Peter Finch who are running the New York Marathon to raise money for CatWalk.

"On behalf of CatWalk, Cat (founder Catriona Williams), me and everyone ... good luck ... I think you're massively strong people to do something like that."

New Zealand's Next Top Model judge and international fashion personality Colin Mathura-Jeffree was looking after Phillips following the auction. When contacted he laughed and said he "couldn't talk right now".

Catriona Williams of CatWalk said it was great that everyone attended for the event rather than to see Phillips as her attendance had not been made public.

The international press has been staking out Dunedin Airport since yesterday, but Phillips' arrival is likely to be kept well under wraps.

Yesterday, she and a female travelling companion were whisked through a back exit of Auckland airport by police, then taken by chauffeur-driven Range Rover to a remote country house on the outskirts of the city.

Their secret arrival at the CatWalk event was only foiled by sharp-eyed photographers, who saw her being driven into the underground carpark of the Telecom Plaza off Victoria St before the show.

England play Romania in Dunedin on Saturday.