Sweating it out

Para Murray (17), of Kaitaia, takes the temperature of New Plymouth Girls’ High School pupil Bailee Manukonga (17) after she had been pedalling  an exercise bike in 35degC and 60% humidity yesterday.

Bailee was one of four pupils riding  the bikes as part of the week-long Hands-On at Otago university programme.

She said the experiment was designed  to test how their bodies reacted on the equipment under environmental stress.

"It was quite hard to bike for 20 minutes in that heat. You’re sweating a lot. We weighed ourselves before and after and I’d lost 300g."

Almost 400 pupils have joined the programme this year.