The Australian athlete took to Moke Lake with 60 women in an event run by her sponsor Roxy, the female-targeted brand of action sports giant Quiksilver.
Bright is a focused competitor on the snow but was happy to take it easy at Sunday's event while others raced for prizes.
``I had to get involved,'' she said. ``Once you're there and feel the energy from all the girls, you feel you're missing out if you don't.
``But it was just a nice paddle with the girls for me, make some new friends. That's what the day's all about.''
Bright won gold in the halfpipe in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, and silver in 2014 in Sochi, Russia.
She was also a double Winter X Games gold medallist and double silver medallist in the superpipe and won bronze in slopestyle at the World Championships in 2013.
During those years, Bright trained in Wanaka during southern hemisphere winters. Her brother lives in the lakes district.
``Once upon a time, I was a local for a few months of the year, not in the last three years but probably the 10 before that.
``It's been nice to be back, actually, catch up with some friends. It's so beautiful and it's nice to be more of a tourist than here to get a job done.''
Hundreds of women participated in the three events over the day, including the paddle boarding. More than 160 took on a 6km run and 200 attended a yoga session.
``We have all ages to these Roxy fitness events; we had the dads looking after the kids while the mums were out there paddling; young teenagers, everyone.
``It gives women a chance to come together as a community and do rad things.''
