Ruataniwha Lake Swim Day

Saturday 15 March

A big day all round!

Early rise to get over to the Ruataniwha Lake Swim by 8am, then a wee wait for the actual swim to begin at 9.20am.

It was busy as all around the event set up - with 180 or so registered to swim one of the three distances, plus assorted supporters (human and canine), plus all the HS guys (Coastguard, Hato Hone St John paramedics, Search & Rescue and Meridian Hard Labour Volunteers) - there were heaps of us milling around in the chilly morning as the sun attempted to climb over the trees behind us. Louis got himself registered and changed into his wetsuit and all the other gear - then had to add his chunky cardi for warmth... quite the look!

The lake water was chilly - 15*C, ice cream headache kinda chilly - but the sun was out though it took a while to pop over the trees and warm us all up. It was cool to bump into Ireen’s lovely friend Eddie who makes fresh water wetsuits while we were waiting, but he was swimming too so agreed to catch up after the big event. The briefing was quick & thorough - stay safe and swim clockwise in a big rectangle round the yellow buoys, and then they were off! Green caps for the 3.8km swim, twice round the course.

It was lovely watching the waters churn as 70-80 mad people set off for the sunny side of the lake, and incredible to see 3 young guys take an early lead - after their first lap they were neck & neck, about 20 seconds ahead of the next 3 then another gap to the rest of the pack. Unfortunately someone in the following pack struck out for the lake shore taking a bunch of others including Louis with them so they all swam an extra 160m on the first leg! Even so, he rounded the starter buoys in the top 20 or so before heading out on the second lap, which was awesome!

While they were out the 1.5km (yellow caps) & 500m (pink caps) swimmers set off too. The latter included an unruly bunch who were so much fun - clad in an array of skirty swimsuits, shorts and rashies, and even one guy in a surf wetsuit, snorkel & mask they were clearly not "natural athletes" but they tackled the swim with shrieks of laughter, support from their friends and a variety of swim strokes!

Watching the swimmers coming in across the lake on the second lap, I was so pleased Louis had his orange strappy hat under the green cap, so once I thought I had recognised him by his swim stroke, I could verify his identity through the long camera lens and cheer him in! Proud to say that he came in at a very creditable 1hour and 3minutes putting him 4th in his age group and 22nd overall - yay! He also won a spot prize (which we traded to a swim poncho) so a great day!

Went and had a chat with Eddie from Ruby Fresh Wetsuits - Ireen, our friend from Acton, had put us in touch as they used to work together in a previous century when Eddie ran snowboarding competitions in the Alps (original ones up North) and Ireen organised tours and transport to these events. We met Ireen & Adam at a Club Med holiday in Greece in around 2004 so the connections go back a long way! Eddie inaugurated the Ruby Swim in Lake Wānaka a few years back (which Louis is keen to do next year) and saw a gap in the market for freshwater wetsuits (which require more buoyancy than the standard seawater ones) and created Ruby Fresh Wetsuits and designed his Flow suits which were well represented in the Ruataniwha Swim.

Back to Banjo for brunch/lunch and a siesta, where we decided Louis hadn’t had enough exercise yet, so we headed out down the Ohau Canal to Lake Benmore on the Ebikes.

It was a mostly flat ride and we encountered two Meridian hydropower dams along the way which were cool. All the canals and most of the lakes in this area are manmade or at least shaped by human intervention as hydropower is huge in this region. Lake Benmore had a campsite just below the dam, which we will be keen to visit, but probably next summer. I think it'd be freezing cold here in a few months time.

Back at Banjo we scrubbed up and wandered over to the Salmon Farm for dinner at Logan’s - celebrating the swim but also 3 months of being in Te Wai Pounamu, the South Island - wow!

Sat on the deck with a drink, giggling at the papango ducks and one lone coot squabbling over who got to sit on the ropes around the salmon tanks - it was like the Pixar short "for the birds" with big kerfuffles on a regular basis. Sitting at our table in the restaurant a little later, it was cute to be able to see Banjo over Louis' shoulder!

Dinner menu was set price for 2-3 courses - we went with one starter, two mains and two desserts and it was all delicious. Potato salmon blini to start, crispy salmon & duck cannelloni for mains then creme brulee & lemon meringue cheesecake for dessert - many kilos!!!

Walking back across the bridge in the moonlight at the end of the evening was magical. This is what our Odyssey is all about!