Goggles at Dawn

 Last year a group of Wellington swimmers travelled north to participate in the Swim for Starship Swimathon at Mairangi Bay. It was such a good day, and such a fun trip that I was very keen to go again in Novmber 2021. A group of 5-6 of us were also eager, and we booked flights. Of course, with the delta outbreak in Auckland going on and on, things had begun to look a bit sticky in October, and just when I was trying to decide whether to cancel and credit my flights, AirNZ made the decision for me by cancelling our flights.  A couple of weeks later, Swim T3 put out an announcement that the Swimathon itself would need to be cancelled because of restrictions on large gatherings. Still, the opportunity to do a long day of swimming remained appealing, and as I needed to do a 5-6 hour training swim, I decided to do my own swimathon here in Oriental Bay. 27 November seemed like a good day to do it, so I set up a donation page for Starship  and planned what I'd do. The Mair...

Wellington returned to Level 3 on Wednesday 1 September, coinciding with the first day of spring, and this meant a joyous return to the sea, and socially-distanced swimming. A bunch of us hared off to Worser Bay to immerse ourselves. The weather excelled itself, with sunshine and light winds, making for an afternoon that appeared not just spring-like, but summery. Worser Bay never disappoints, anyway, in any weather. As a group, we'd debated some of the Level 3 guidance for sea swimming, namely that one should swim at one's nearest beach, rather than one's favourite beach. Some rationalisation occurred, as we weighed up the pros and cons of (a) safety and (b) proximity. The eventual compromise was that the nearest beach (for example, Owhiro Bay) mightn't be the safest. Thus, Worser Bay - being reasonably local, clean, and safe - seemed a good bet. The two weeks of Level 4 had been my longest break from swimming since ... Level 4 in 2020. But that had been many more week...

 In an earlier post, I mentioned my 5.03 400 yard effort at Thorndon . I was pleased with that and really wanted to do another, under 5.00, the following week. I'd also planned to lift my kilometres to c. 30km per week to coincide with the mid-trimester break at university. Well, that day of the 5.03 400fr was also Tuesday 17 August. Approximately 11 hours later I was sitting in the Wellington Hospital ED, with my mother who was about to be admitted to have her gallbladder removed urgently. Meanwhile, a community covid case had been announced in Auckland. While the maternal unit was wheeled out to be x-rayed, the press briefing came on TV, and a Level 4 lockdown was announced, starting at midnight. The announcement caused something of a stir in the ED, but naturally, my first thought was ‘there goes my faster 400 … And there goes my 30km week …)  While I sat sunk in vacant and pensive self-obsession, my mother returned from the x-ray place, somewhat livelier thanks to morphin...

  Wednesday and Friday morning swims at Freyberg Beach remained part of the programme through July and August too. The mornings became lighter, but still, we experienced the gamut of conditions: northerly gale and big swells/white caps, icy southerly whipping up a thousand tiny ripples and freezing your arms every time they left the water (we had a few swims where the air temperature was approximately 3-5 degrees – made more frigid by the Wellington's speciality wind chill – while the water was a balmy 10-11), and the most radiant mornings when the sea turned to gold. Distances varied between 1.2 and 1.8km for most of these, with an occasional turn around the 1km buoy. Rebecca and I return from a chilly excursion around the 3rd buoy, caught on camera by Eliza (who was sensibly heading to the pool) We also had a few Saturday morning swims around the lighthouse in less than delectable conditions. SwimIrishKiwi experienced her first lighthouse swim in 10-degree water and turned the mo...

 A couple of days after returning from Auckland and the not-so-cold Iceberg, a new adventure presented itself.  WRAC, where I swim on Tuesday and Thursday mornings with Bonobo Squad , would be closing for its five-yearly maintenance, meaning that the squad would move to Thorndon Pool during this time. Not only would this mean swimming in an open-air pool during the two coldest months of the winter at 6am, it would also mean getting dressed in the very 'well-ventilated' changing sheds. This sheds, picturesque and well-loved as they are, can be cold in summer, so 7.30am in the winter would be quite the experience.  I was very fortunate that our patient and forbearing coach, Timon, was happy to collect a few carless swimmers from outside WRAC at 5.45am on swim days, and I was very grateful for this! However, getting up at about 5.15am instead of 5.30am – alongside starting a new job for a term – proved surprisingly tiring. The first two weeks were a grind, and while I love T...

 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 t...

 Over the past couple of months, I've been swimming at Freyberg Beach on Wednesday and Friday mornings at 7am. There is a pretty big crew of daily swimmers who brave the increasingly cold and dark mornings for these revitalizing dips (and some who go out even earlier). Distances tend to vary depending on who is there, and what the conditions are like, so occasionally it's just a quick lap of the 2nd buoy and fountain, or 1km buoy and fountain. At other times we've even managed a lighthouse lap by 8am. I've enjoyed the jollity of these swims, as the days have grown shorter, the light has grown dimmer, and the water has cooled down noticeably. The other benefit, of course, has been witnessing a lot of magical dawns, observing the different colours of the rising sun on the eastern and western hills, watching mist or rain drifting across Mt Victoria, and seeing how the water changes as the sun creeps upwards. In the last two weeks, the sea has been black as black when we se...