Today marks the 230th consecutive day a group of four Queenstown residents have jumped into the bitter depths of Lake Wakatipu — or a suitable substitute.
Paddy Turnhout, Brett Sheehan, Chris Walker and Chaz Monaghan are taking part in "The Ripple Effect", where they immerse themselves in the lake every day for a full calendar year, ending on New Year’s Eve.
It follows last year’s ice bath challenge, in which Mr Turnhout and a group of mates spent 276 minutes in an ice bath, starting with 60 seconds on March 1, increasing the time by a minute every day until they reached Mr Turnhout’s 23rd birthday, on March 23.
During that challenge, they raised money for the I Am Hope charity.
Mr Monaghan said they came up with the idea for The Ripple Effect after brainstorming ways to improve that effort.
While Lake Wakatipu was not nearly as cold as the ice water — the water temperature is between 10degC and 12degC — the time commitment, up to 20 minutes a day, was larger, he said.
"We’ve found that 20 minutes is the sweet spot ... Anything more than that and the body starts to convulse."
If any of them were not in Queenstown for the day, "we find the coldest natural body of water we can ... to stay true [to] our commitment", he said.
"So every day we ‘make a ripple’, especially when we don’t feel like it.
"It reinforces our ability to keep our word."
Cold-water immersion is said to have major health benefits, including improving energy and helping with well-balanced mental health.
