The Iceberg

 A daily shiver-by-shiver report of winter outdoor swimming would probably become tedious, so now, well into spring I'll provide a digest of some of our winter swimming. First of all, a winter race.

In July I went on a frivolous trip to Auckland to swim in the Iceberg on Waiheke Island. It was a big expedition for a <30-minute race, but a really great day out. And it’s always fun to go on a ferry. I stayed with Geraldine, Alayna, and Franke the Schnauzer in their AirBnB: one large room over a garage but commanding million-dollar views. 

The race had a very civilised afternoon start time, so we had a leisurely start to the day, had time to eat plenty, and make sandwiches (almond butter and apricot jam!) before heading to the beach and taking in the scene. After many cold mornings in Wellington, winter on Waiheke with bright sun and no wind felt glorious. The water was apparently 12.8 degrees. Getting to the start at Little Oneroa Beach involved a cliff-bottom walk through the shallows, and then a quick scramble over a cliff (to raise the heart rate). Watching many people insert themselves into wetsuits, neoprene caps, gloves, and booties made me increasingly nervous about just how cold and hard a 2km sprint would be in water lurking around the 12-degree mark. During the little ‘warm up’ the water didn’t seem cold, but perhaps that was just the delicious sunshine?  Anyway, we lined up, the klaxon sounded, and it was all on. The instructions for navigating the course had seemed very complex during the briefing, but it was all straightforward.

The swim never went very deep, and so while all the early hurly-burly with manic wetsuiters went on, I concentrated on navigation and looking at the beautiful patterns in the golden sand two metres below the surface. After the second big marker buoy I’d shaken off the neoprene throng and could see some fast swimmers ahead to catch. The water seemed far warmer than 12.8 (probably 14ish) and while the chillier-than-usual racing conditions made themselves felt in my lungs a little, I was flying along by the time I rounded the final buoy. The golden sand on the sea floor reappeared, suggesting it was time for a ‘sprint’ to try and beat Mike C.  After winding myself up for the gargantuan final effort, I took a look up, and realised the beach was still a very long way away. Mike timed his finish a little better … thus beating me by 7 seconds. I came in 5^th (behind four wetsuiters) in the W30-39 age group, in a 28:52 that was not so far off my best summer 2km. 

After a short dip in the spa and getting dressed behind a flax bush (the changing facilities were a bit small), it was time to eat a sausage, not win a spot prize, and catch the ferry back to town for dinner with friends (sitting on the upper, open deck of the ferry in an icy wind was the coldest I've ever been in Auckland) and flew back to Wellington early on Sunday morning.

The Iceberg was a great event: fun to catch up with friends in a sunny place in midwinter, experience a beautiful bit of water, and some good cooler-water racing. A whiole host of Wellington Ocean Swimmers made the trip up as well.