Eden open water swimming coach Colin Hill has taken the plunge and completed an epic challenge in New Zealand’s Cook Strait.
Colin, 54, lives at Howtown, near Ullswater, and coaches at the Ullswater Swim Place. He is no stranger to monumental cold water swimming challenges, only last year having taken on the icy waters of the Baltic with a haul of medals from the Winter Swimming World Championships.
The Cook Strait lies between the North Island and South Island in New Zealand and is notorious for its strong currents, tides and wild conditions.
The swim is on the list of Oceans 7, which are the best crossings on the seven continents.
“I have already swum the English Channel, solo in 10 hrs 30 mins, but the Cook Strait has always been on my list of must do swims, as I lived in New Zealand, but never got the chance to swim the Strait,” Colin told the Herald.
“The journey to New Zealand took a bit of a detour as I travelled first to Jinan in China to compete in the Winter Swimming World Cup event and was happy to pick up two medals in non wetsuit cold water races.
“Although this sounds like good preparation for an arduous swim challenge, winter swim races normally 500 meters or below. So each evening after races I went by taxi to the nearest swimming pool to clock up 10kms in training.
“In fact during November and December my training sessions averaged 10km each day in Penrith pool.
“The swim in New Zealand is very weather dependent and the support boats will not guide any swimmers if it is over 20 knots due to the severity of the crossing. I had planned to be in Wellington for 11 days to give myself time to acclimatise to the 14 degree waters (it had been a cold summer so far) and have plenty of free days for the first good weather day.
“It looked like I was going to be unlucky, as each evening I waited to hear from the support team.
“It was only on my last day in New Zealand that there was finally a break in the windy weather for me to attempt the swim.”
The challenge started with a boat ride to the South Island and the swim was back to the North Island.
“Jumping off the rib boat into the cold water seemed like a tough start, I swam to the beach then the swim was under way,” recalled Colin. A support boat guided me across the Strait along with sightings of dolphins and plenty of jellyfish stings (only nettle like stings).
“I went hard for the first hour and clocked up 5kms, the support boat handed me a warm carbohydrate drink (I was not allowed to touch the boat) and I was off again, now stopping every 45 minutes, dropping to 30 minutes near the end.
“The North Island was in sight for an age, but never seemed to get any closer, until some eight hours 27 mins later for the 30km crossing I was hauling myself on to the stony beach.”
Colin can be found coaching and guiding swimmers from Another Place Hotel – Ullswater where he has an Endless Pool to help improve swimmers’ technique.
