Same star, different beach

Sarah McBeath at Mt Maunganui yesterday. Photo / Alan Gibson

Years after she appeared as a bikini-wearing extra on Baywatch, Sarah McBeath was surprised to meet the show's star again - in her hometown.

Ms McBeath was 19 when she was one of two people who won a TV2 competition in 1993 to appear as an extra on what was once the world's most popular television show.

The Mt Maunganui employment lawyer, now 37, flew to Los Angeles and spent a day on a Santa Monica pier with the cast and crew, wearing a bikini.

Her role required her to buy something from a store owned by former WWF wrestler Andre the Giant.

" It was an all-day shoot for what was about five minutes of the programme," she recalls.

Ms McBeath remembered meeting David Hasselhoff on the set.

"He was just a really nice guy. He talked about his time in New Zealand and how he enjoyed it here."

She could not believe it when she heard Hasselhoff was returning to New Zealand and Mt Maunganui.

The pair met briefly again yesterday, when Hasselhoff signed a copy of the 1993 script she had kept.

"He did say that he recognised me and I thought, 'That's a bit weird because I have my glasses on'.

"But he's not pretentious or anything like that, he's just a genuinely nice guy."

Ms McBeath stood back from the Hoff bedlam as he was swamped by fans after arriving at Mt Maunganui Beach.

"He's just got such a cult following," she said, "but I don't think I've ever seen something like this here before."