Lake Taupō swimmer Paula Champtaloup, Amanda Hamilton and Alison Downes take a cold plunge. Video / Dan Hutchinson
There are strange goings-on down on the Taupō foreshore, where each day four women drop their dressing gowns and run shrieking across the sand into the frigid lake.
Despite the temperature of the water being a chilly 11C, there are no wetsuits for this hardy bunch of all-weather swimmers, justtogs and a sunny disposition.
Paula Champtaloup and Ann Smith have been doing their daily dips since March, after being inspired by a news item about the Embrace the Cold: Ice Bath Challenge happening in Christchurch.
“[Ann] rang the next day and said ‘do you want to do something radical’ and I said ‘always, but what is it’ and she said ‘shall we go and jump in the Waikato [River]’ and I said ‘brrrrrr, okay, let’s’, and we have been doing it ever since.”
That was in March and the challenge she set herself then was to still be going for daily dips in the lake when there was snow on the mountains.
Well, there’s been snow on the mountains for two months now, the pair are still going strong and have been joined in their daily mission by Amanda Hamilton and Alison Downes.
Paula Champtaloup takes a bracing immersion in Lake Taupō. Photo / Dan Hutchinson
“We are a bit addicted now aren’t we?” Champtaloup said, which becomes a cue for the group to head noisily for the otherwise tranquil waters, prompting the ducks to paddle furiously for safety.
Champtaloup’s daily challenge is about to get a whole lot more serious as she sets out to swim for 130 minutes in four North Island lakes and seven in the significantly cooler waters of the South Island.
The 69-year-old will be raising money for I Am Hope, and the 130-minute timespan is because that is one minute for every young life lost to suicide last year.
“So every minute is honouring a youth.”
Early next month she will be swimming in the volcanic lakes: Taupō, Rotorua, Rotoiti and Tarawera, before heading south to swim Lakes Tekapo, Pukaki, Ōhau, Hāwea, Wānaka, Hayes and Wakatipu.
She will be promoting her fundraiser through her Plunge into Life Facebook page and a Givealittle page for I Am Hope.
She would also welcome some sponsorship to help cover costs as she heads south.
The cold-water swims haven’t been all about the pain, though.
“The dopamine hit is better than if you were on cocaine. Not that I’ve done cocaine of course,” Champtaloup said.
She had been more alert and more energetic and had lost some weight since beginning her chilly dips.
Hamilton admitted to being “terribly addicted” to the cold-water experience.
Amanda Hamilton (left), Alison Downes and Paula Champtaloup enjoy their chilly plunge. Photo / Dan Hutchinson
“You get in and it hurts but after a few minutes you start to calm down and then it stops hurting. It’s weird and your body just acclimatises.”
The group swim in all weather, although Smith has the better deal on this particular day.
“She’s the instigator but she is lounging about on a beach in Thailand at the moment. She tells me she is still going in every day. It’s 31 degrees over there,” Champtaloup said.
“Usually we have four dressing gowns in the sand and we go every day. There was one week we had those surf waves, it was so rough. Ann and I were out here and it was just so rough.
“I’ve been down here when it’s raining and a bitter cold wind blowing off the mountain.”
She would try to tick off plenty of her minutes in the North Island lakes because the water temperature was likely to drop to single digits once she heads south to the glacier-fed lakes. Her record so far this winter is 15 minutes in the water.
Meanwhile, it’s time for the trio to head out of the icy water and wander down to the Taharepa Hot Water Beach, where someone’s conveniently dug a spa-pool-sized hole full of steaming water to relax in.
