Guest Blog: Swimming Foveaux, Te Ara a Kiwi

Thursday 10 March 2022 was a big day for marathon swimming in New Zealand. On the same day, there were four swimmers in the water, two crossing Te Moana-o-Raukawa (Cook Strait) and two crossing Te Ara a Kiwi (Foveaux Strait). On this particular day, both stretches of water offered some challenges, but ultimately all four swimmers made successful crossings. One of these swimmers was Gráinne Moss, whose account of her 2021 Lake Taupō can be found here. I'm honoured to host the story of her most recent swim, with which Gráinne completed the 'Triple Crown' of NZ's ultra-marathon swims. 

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Swimming Foveaux, Te Ara a Kiwi – 10th March 2022

The Playlist Blog

Among our Wellington Swim Group, the “Spud Buds” there is an accepted tradition that you not only do your open-water swim challenge – you also write a blog about it. Welcome to my blog about swimming from Stewart Island to Bluff, one of ocean swimming's Toughest 13. I have structured this blog around a playlist of songs that link to some of the actions, emotions, and choices that are made as you train and attempt new challenges: The Foveaux Te-Ara-a- Kiwi Playlist

Song 1: Should I Stay or Should I Go? – The Clash
Over a cup of tea following my Lake Taupō swim (April 2021) Philip Rush asked if I was thinking of Foveaux for 2022. At the time I was on the couch recovering from the 40.2km of Lake Taupō, unable to even lift my arms, definitely not going swimming, but the seed had been planted. In June I contacted Philip and booked my slot. I developed a good training plan which reflected what I had learned about my body during the training for Lake Taupō. This was that I can’t do over 40km of swimming every week and survive; I need to do two heavy weeks (km-wise) and one lighter week, not the three heavy, one lighter I had tried with Taupō. Training went well: plenty of sea swims, lots of kilometres in the pool, and — despite the Covid cancellation of most swim events — I was, at the end of January, at the “top of my game” as Phil had instructed me to be.

Song 2: Trust in Me – Etta James

This was going to be my first big swim in New Zealand without Philip Rush in the IRB beside me as I swam. I was worried about that. On these swims, you need people who have your back 100%, whose focus is you 100%, and whom you trust 100%. It is not rational — it's deeply emotional. I had a chat with Philip, and Dan Abel and Sarah Harrow were in the IRB beside me on the day. They — along with my family on the big boat – all got me 100%. This was my first time having one of my children with me on a swim. The bond of being on the boat with someone on a swim is unique, special, and unbreakable. With the skipper Rewi and his wonderful wife Paula, Mike Cochrane, and Philip overseeing the swim, I had an “A” team. My father Joe and mother Philippa are a particularly important part of this team. Joe was chief land logistics and mum prepped all my food, packed the bags, and sat on the side of the boat watching me throughout the entire swim. Mum’s been on my team since my first ever long-distance swim, and she knew exactly what needed to be done.

Song 3: Get’cha Head In The Game – Trey Disney (High School Musical) 
Song 4: joy – For King & Country

Phil rang me on Monday [7 March] to say the swim might be on Thursday. We had a tense conversation about weather conditions and forecasts, which I thought didn’t look too good. I nearly started to cry. I realised I was emotionally fragile, and my head was not in-game. I really needed to do some work on that, and I started in earnest immediately after that call. I read, I reflected on what I was worried about, talked to myself, and prayed. There is an Oscar Romero prayer that I have recently come across and found very impactful. One line in it says “We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realising that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.” I couldn’t do everything, but I could swim and do that very well!

By the time I jumped into the sea off Stewart Island, I can say I was mentally very well prepared. Whilst there were things that one could interpret as “bad signs” e.g., my cap split as I put it on … I was in the zone…this was not a sign, it was just a fact and I had got five other caps to choose from. The endless jellyfish for the first four hours were just a fact, I was not going to burn nerves about being stung – it might not happen — it did twice but the pain subsided both times after 15 minutes. The freezing water helped! Throughout the 12 hours and 27 minutes of the swim, the mental work done before the swim was as important, if not more so, than the physical training. And throughout the swim I had a deep spiritual feeling of Joy.

Song 5: Come Together –The Beatles



This is the first swim I have ever done with someone I knew in the water at the same time attempting the same challenge. Here we were, two mothers of four, somewhere on the other side of a half-century, attempting to cross Foveaux and become the 8th and 9th people to complete the NZ Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming. The Triple Crown consists of Cook Strait (circa 25km), length of Lake Taupo (40.2km) and Foveaux Strait (28.6km). There was something cool about having a “buddy” in the water at the same time. We also joined forces to raise over $8000 for Kenzie's Gift. Huge congratulations to Susan and her crew and her achievement of becoming the oldest person to cross Foveaux and 30 minutes faster than the younger swimmer on the day!

Song 6: Main Theme – Jaws



Whilst my head was in the game, I still burnt an incredible amount of nervous energy in the first 45 minutes of the swim worrying about the great white sharks who are prevalent in Foveaux. Before the swim, I had taken some comfort in the fact that the IRB and the wonderful team in it would save me if Jaws did fancy me as a snack. I also thought I am the only swimmer on Cook Strait to have been taken out of the water because of a shark —surely, I couldn’t get that unlucky? What I soon realised was if Jaws really wanted to eat me, he or she was likely to come off best. So, I settled down and decided not to waste valuable energy worrying about what I couldn’t control.

Song 7: I Can See Clearly Now – Hothouse Flowers

Five hours into the swim the fog rolled in, and the conditions changed within a 10-minute window: there was chop, there was swell, and it was not fun. The upside was the chances of sunburn were reduced, and given my exceptionally pale skin, this was a win. For over three hours I had no sense of where I was. I stopped for a feed and had to ask which way I was supposed to swim. During this period, I focused on each 30-minute feed and thought the conditions changed quickly from sunny to not, calm to windy…they can change quickly again.

Meanwhile, on the big boat tensions were high. At this point, we were well into the swim, but the fog heightened everyone’s stress. My mum anxiously awaited feed times, to assess how shaky I looked, terrified I’d have to be pulled out. Nobody could see anything, relying on Rewi to get us through the weather into the right place. After three and a half hours the fog lifted. Being able to see Bluff in the distance (and I knew it was far away) made my heart soar and my spirits lifted. At that point I thought yep, we can get this done!

Song 8: No One But You – Queen
One of the reasons it has taken me so long to write up my swim is that it was a complex swim for me – there were many layers. The challenge itself, the unknown, the risks, the profile of this swim and conditions which make it like the only ocean I had to be pulled out of — the North Channel from Ireland to Scotland.

However, most of all it is the deep sadness and shock of the tragic death of fellow swimmer Nick Hobson in February. I was one of the first swimmers in our Spud Buds group (to which both Nick and I belonged) to be heading into a long ocean swim following his death. I constantly thought of Nick, of how unfair life can be, and questioned should I swim or not. What was the right and respectful thing to do?

An hour before the end of the swim a pod of dolphins appeared and swam with me. I have never experienced this before, nor did I expect it. I could hear them talking to each other and had a magnificent view of them as they swam around and under me. Whilst I had been emotional when I had seen the coast, the arrival of the dolphins left me overwhelmed. Nick had had dolphins swim with him on Cook Strait and I felt Nick sent me these dolphins to make sure I got home. The tears started to flow. I however remembered his strong Scottish heritage, told myself to focus my energy on swimming, and thought I can have a good cry when I am finished.

Song 9: On Top of the World – Imagine Dragons
Twelve hours and 27 minutes after leaving Stewart Island I “landed” on the South Island. About fifty metres from the finish Sarah and Dan stopped me and suggested I have a drink – I thought, are they mad? It turned out they were not, but they were wanting to “time” my finish, so I did not get bashed by the rocks due to the swells. They waited for a lull in the swell and waves and told me to swim hard to the rocky land, touch it, shout clear and get out of there. That is exactly what I did.