Resurfacing from my plunge into Lake Hāwea I can taste pure, clean, water on my tongue and I can’t help but take another sip from the glacial lake. It’s so sweet. I haven’t tasted water like this since I was a child, drinking from an alpine stream in the tussock land on Mt Ruapehu.
My body sings with the memory and the new one I’m making, laughing gleefully as I now float on my back and take in the wonder around me. The mountains, the blue of the lake, marvelling at the abundance of quartz crystal stones on the lake floor beneath me and the smiling face of Nat, founder of The Secret Sauna at Lake Hāwea who’s already in on this incredible secret.
She shares she had the same feeling when she first came here. “When you swim, you see quartz crystals everywhere and your skin, hair and soul feel amazing,”
