Kate Love Reveals Harrowing Travel Experience En Route to SI Swimsuit Debut in Chile

The 11-time brand model had the worst luck on the way to her first photo shoot in 2013.

Kate Love was photographed by Yu Tsai in Hollywood, Fla. / Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

For Kate Love, booking her debut Sports Illustrated Swimsuit photo shoot in 2013 was a dream come true. The travel experience, on the other hand, was not.

The photo shoot was set to take place on Easter Island, Chile, a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. Love, a New York resident at the time, was set to fly from the big city to mainland Chile and from there to the Polynesian island. It “was my dream job, so getting booked for this was so exciting,” she said on the set of the 60th anniversary Legends photo shoot in Hollywood, Fla. this year. “I couldn’t wait.” But her travel issues began before she could even leave the United States.

“It was the day Storm Sandy hit New York,” she explained. “Every flight got delayed [or] cancelled. Everything bad that could happen on a travel day happened.”

And that was only the start. After delays, Love finally made it to mainland Chile, where she was set to board a smaller plane and for another six hours to Easter Island. Mid-flight, the crew announced that they were having mechanical problems and would have to turn the plane around and fly back to the mainland. Six hours of waiting at the airport and six more hours of flying later, Love finally arrived on Easter Island.

“I remember just balling—like I [was] so tired and scared and confused,” she recalled. “Then getting there and just having to go with it, just turn up and do the thing. It all worked out—great weather, a really cool place and beautiful. But [there was] every obstacle to get there, to start this whole process.”

From the looks of the photos, you could never guess what Love underwent to make it to the location. And, thankfully, the experience didn’t deter her from returning to the SI Swimsuit set. Since, she has posed for 10 more annual issues—each feature as stunning as the last.