My Wakatipu Legendary Louis!

Saturday 21 March

It all started with a 4.45am alarm - an hour later it was still dark as we made our way downtown and an hour after that, Louis had stripped down to his wetsuit, goggles and orange swim hat, listened to the briefing, and was on board the TSS Earnslaw, steaming over to the Frankton Arm of Lake Wakatipu in the darkness, with around 180 other swimmers joining him in the madness.

By 7.30am, the 180 mad swimmers were leaping off the Earnslaw into the 14*C waters of the lake and at 7.45am the ship’s horn blew to signal the start of the 4km The Realnz Whakatipu Legend swim.

Meanwhile, I joined several other support crew at Mrs. Ferg Beach Street for breakfast (toasted cheese & bacon scone and a chunky hot chocolate - I resisted the other sweet delicacies in the cabinet, but it was tough) and then we all hung out on the beach and along the parade, waiting for the swimmers to appear around the peninsula and head to the finish line. A glorious sunrise gradually lit up the mountains behind Queenstown central, and the Earnslaw steamed back into view and over to her mooring at Steamer Wharf around 8am. I had happy memories of our anniversary dinner at the Botswana Butchery over a decade ago... maybe we should return for our 30th!

The winner, Riley Taylor, streaked in a good minute or more ahead of his competition taking 50m31s to cover 4kms, followed by Lara Streletsky. Louis was not far behind, crossing the finish line in 25th place at 1h03m - amazing!

Our sneaky free parking space right by the beach ran out at 9am, so I took him back to Driftaway Queenstown for a warm shower and a full English cooked breakfast!

Then we whizzed back into town in time to see the very last competitor in the 4km race finally cross the line at 11.21am, to a huge cheer from the crowd on the beach! He only learned to swim at Christmas so this was a truly epic achievement.

We hung around for the prize giving this year - last year Louis was second in his age group, but this year the 50-59 category was super strong and despite placing 25th overall, he was only 7th in the age group... bizarre! Had a lovely time meeting dogs - Artie, Meggy & Boston across the middle, Bonnie the Goldie in all the other pics… she kinda adopted us while we waited for prize giving!!!

Spent a while chatting to other competitors, giggling at the dad who won a giant cheque for coming second in the Triple Challenge (swimming 4, 2 & 1kms consecutively!) - his young sons really had no idea what it actually was 🤣 - then wandered over to get Louis a consolation prize of a brownie from Mrs Ferg’s and before heading back to Banjo for a siesta and general chill out.

Just time for a luxurious shower before we headed back to town for a First Table dinner at Local Queenstown. Delicious calamari starter then we shared a ginormous plate of slow cooked lamb with golden roasties, fresh veggies, gravy & mint jelly - sooo good! Popped to Mrs Ferg for our THIRD visit of the day for dessert - gelato for Louis and lemon meringue pie for me.

Strolled happily along the lakefront, marvelling at the clarity of the view on a cool early autumn evening (and the cheekiness of the gulls) then returned to Driftaway where we caught the tiniest glimpse of the night's aurora peeking over the hills to the south, fighting a losing battle with the bright lights of Queenstown.

Perfect end to a legendary day!