Hataitai Beach showers

Hi there

The other day J and I were getting into our bathing suits in the changing sheds at Hataitai Beach when a young woman came bounding in, shampoo, soap, and towel in hand, and chattered away to us.   We think, by her accent, she was probably American.  American women do tend to bounce and chatter, and isn't it lovely?  I'm sure I was meant to be born American because I'm a chatterer/bouncer...er as well.  When my friends and I were very young teens, to flumox our elders, we grandly used American words like "movies" instead of  "pictures" , and once we were actually inside the movie thee-ate-her, we proclaimed that we were watching  "trailers", not "shorts".  Hard to believe now how unusual all that was then, eh?

Anyway, J and I were about to step down into the water when we heard a blood-curdling scream coming from the shower in the changing sheds..  I rushed towards the shed, calling out frantically "Are you all right?" to the woman we'd left there only a minute or so before.  Maybe she'd slipped in the shower?   Blood might be everywhere, I'd have to call an ambulance, and was my mobile in the car or had I left it, as per usual, at home?  Oh dear.

Back came the agonised shout, "The water is sooooo cold!!".

"Oh, okay, then..."

As J and I got into the sea, there were many more anguished cries coming from that shower-box.

Poor woman.  Hataitai Beach regulars are trained to accept the cold water.  In fact, there is always a mad un-genteel rush to be first into the shower after a swim because the first ten or so seconds of gushing-out water has often been warmed in the pipes by the sun.

Now that the next door Evans Bay Marina parking area has been designated for campervans, I expect we will get many more travellers using the men/women showers. 

Take note, tourists, all shower water in changing sheds around Wellington is cold.