Her partner, she said, came to the rescue of two other men who found themselves caught in a rip.
"You could say it's been a very action-packed Kiwi summer!" she laughed. "It really makes you feel very lucky."
Cormack, Hutchison and Wiseman came back to New Zealand to experience a Kiwi summer because, they say, it's the only place they feel at home.
Danielle Cormack posted a video of herself trying to surf on a bodyboard with disastrous results. Photo / Instagram, Danielle Cormack
"The birds this year were amazing," Wiseman, 42, says. "I tried to download a native New Zealand bird soundtrack on iTunes, but there's nothing. I love our birds. In Australia, the birds are so bloody raucous."
Wiseman, who lives in Sydney with hubby Craig Hall, is preparing to shoot the third series of the television drama A Place to Call Home. The show is moving from the Seven Network to Foxtel.
She is behind an independent and privately run actors' training programme in New Zealand, and is flying back to Auckland at the end of the month to run tutorials with aspiring Kiwi thesps.
Cormack returned to Sydney yesterday, and Hutchison jetted back to Hollywood on Wednesday. But not without some necessities.
"Okay, you will laugh because it is a bit low-rent, but I have to take a big jar of Nescafe instant coffee with me when I go back to Los Angeles," she giggled. "That, and Dilmah tea bags. I love them. Mum sends them over, too, in care packages."
Sarah Wiseman says the birds back home this year have been 'amazing'.
The 28-year-old has come off a heavy workload, filming four back-to-back projects that took her from Alaska to Ontario, Ohio and California.
She was happy to come home to relax and unwind, before heading back to the hustle and bustle of Hollywood pilot season.
"I was raised on the Shore and the beach was two minutes away, but in LA, if I want to go to the beach it's a 2-hour drive in traffic to Santa Monica. It's crazy.
"So I just hit the beach here ... Whangamata, Mt Maunganui, Muriwai, it was beautiful. There's something so genuine and authentic about the Kiwi summer holiday, you can't beat it. But then there were the shark stories in the Herald! I didn't go swimming that day!"
The former Go Girls and Shortland Street star, who made an appearance alongside Charlie Sheen in his sitcom Anger Management, is realistic, too, about the industry.
Anna Hutchison came home from Hollywood for the summer holidays. Photos / Instagram, Anna Hutchison
"Acting is my passion, but I'm always trying to upskill. I've signed up at UCLA to do some screenwriting papers."
Cormack is tackling a new play, Boys Will Be Boys, with Cate Blanchett's Sydney Theatre Company. She's up for a best actress gong at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards on January 29.
Like Phar Lap, Lorde and the pav, the Aussies are claiming her as one of theirs. But she hasn't forgotten her roots.
"I've been staying out at Piha at the bach that's been in our family for 70 years," Cormack says. "This three-week trip back home has only solidified my thoughts that I need to come back more often. It's home, you know."
Former Aussie cricket great swaps spikes for leathers
Glenn McGrath and his wife Sara Leonardi enjoy the sights of Auckland on a Harley-Davidson.
Welcome: Glenn McGrath who is touring Auckland on a Harley-Davidson motorbike.
The 44-year-old former Australian cricketer and his second wife, Sara Leonardi, are getting in touch with their adventurous side.
They have plunged from the Sky Tower, kayaked to Rangitoto and flown in a sea plane to Waiheke Island. Sounds exhausting. Hope they make time for a relaxed fish and chips on the beach.
