Cold July

Over late June and early July we've had some big southerlies in Wellington: icy winds blowing (or so it feels) straight from Antarctica, days of rain, very little sun, low snowfall in the ranges to the north and east of the city, and so forth. I don't object to this weather at all. It provides variety and interest in life, after all. A couple of weeks ago there was endless rain for days. Oddly this didn't seem to affect the harbour much: there were no 'wastewater' overflows at Chaffers/Clyde Quay, and the sea seemed remarkably pellucid. What did happen, though, is that vast amounts of cold, fresh water came down the Hutt River, and gradually spread (in a fascinating pattern) across the harbour. I've borrowed this photo from ocean swimmer Eduardo, who captured the phenomenon from Roseneath. The river water is approaching from the right. 

On Saturday 4 July this process was at its peak, we decided on a good 8am group swim as Bre was still in town, and Alice was up from the South Island as well. Reports were that the sea was a bit brown, but not actually dirty.

We assembled in the Freyberg carpark at 8am and the water was indeed an odd colour. However, it seemed to me that the colour was related to plant-matter/tannin. In we walked, and it certainly seemed cold! A swimmer emerging from the water informed us that the water temp. had dropped to around 9.4-9.6 degrees! This drop was mainly the result of all the cold freshwater sitting on top of the seawater (or so I understand). We inched our way in: the cold was intense, and tooth-freezing, so it didn't seem like a day to strike out for the lighthouse. Instead, we swam out to the 1st buoy, from there to the fountain, back to 1st buoy, back to fountain, and then back to the beach, about 1.3km total. We were all extremely red all over. Visibility in the water was very poor (I crashed into another swimmer) and the water tasted very fresh, barely salty at all. My togs weren't full of sediment either, which suggested the water discolouration was mainly a plant-based thing. 

Loitering on our way across the car park afterwards I realised I was remarkably cold (the windchill being bracing) so after showering briefly I jumped into Freyberg Pool and swam about 600 metres very briskly. The warmer water and the exertion seemed to do the trick, and by the time I hauled myself out, I didn't really feel cold at all. After a brief hot shower, and once dressed (wearing big coat too) I felt quite snuggly. So snuggly, in fact, that it was hard not to doze off when we were waiting for our breakfast at Beach Babylon.