Cold Water Bathing & The Better Beach Babes

A winter dip in Lake Taupo

​If you're out walking or driving past Seatoun Beach early in the morning you may be surprised seeing a group of women of various ages bobbing in the sea.  At 7.30am each week on a Tuesday and Thursday, rain or shine, us Better Beach Babes meet at the small rocky beach between Seatoun and Worser Bay known as Better Beach and where the Better Beach Babes aptly got their name

Last October, local resident Adrienne Linney, the brainchild of the Better Beach babes invited likeminded, sea loving women to join her facebook group page.  Her plan was, once the sea temperature reached a respectable 15 degrees we would meet at the beach and enjoy 20 minutes of camaraderie, cold water bathing or bobbing as we call it - following in the footsteps of the OBE's (Over Bloody Eighties) who from the early 1970's frequented the same beach for nearly 30 years.

No one would be more surprised than Adrienne just how popular this group has become, and now into August and no let up in sight, in togs and beanies we are now braving temperatures as low as 9 degrees.  Some would call us crazy!!   I would also have called us crazy if I had not joined the group myself.  We have bobbed with a seal, had gannets swooping over our heads and viewed numerous amazing sunrises.  Studies reveal huge benefits for mind and body from cold-water immersion but it is also the laughter, chatter and camaraderie of being part of this sea loving group of likeminded women that has me braving the sea each week.

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Better Beach Babes at Better Beach, Seatoun