7:03 AM – Boulcott Suites, Wellington, New Zealand
I am finally feeling ‘back to normal’ after settling into our beautiful townhouse after a long few days of traveling! We arrived into Wellington yesterday around midnight, and luckily were able to find the Avis rental counter still open (although for some reason they had us coming through around 6PM, therefore we had to reinstate our cancelled reservation) and Craig was able to find a Subway in the airport (they are everywhere around here!) We drove our blue Rav 4 to Boulcott Suites – driving on the left-hand side of the road, plus the steering column on the right side was not easy to get used to, ha…
When we arrived at our townhouse, we, along with another stranded traveler, were lucky enough to have been given keys from a night security guard in order to enter the building – this was a blessing as I really felt the three of us in a Rav 4 would have been a tight squeeze for the night! We got settled in our home for the next two weeks, and passed out almost immediately.
Craig was up early and took a walk around town. He brought back some Subway (are you seeing a trend here?) along with some muffins for breakfast and we took part in the food while he told me about what he had found. We took a walk down town (we are right in the heart of Wellington) and checked out some stores prior to heading over to meet up with Kathy, a friend of Craig and May who lived in Denver. She came with us to Oriental Bay, which is where Craig and I took a 30-minute swim prior to meeting up with Philip Rush, who is the organizer of the Cook Strait swim, and has successfully navigated about 85% of the 81 successful crossings since Barry Devonport first crossed the Strait in 1962.
Philip Rush has an incredible history in our sport, including probably the greatest marathon swim of all-time – a 3-way English Channel crossing (one of three people to complete this incredible feat) in a time of just over 28 hours! Few people outside our sport can appreciate this level of dedication and determination to make such an incredible journey. Although he retired back in the late-1980s, he still has quite a spark of enthusiasm and love for the sport which gave us even more confidence to tackle the Strait! We went over a lot of logistics (our intended speed, how/what we are feeding, etc.) as well as some general facts and overview of the treacherous body of what we chose to fly 10,000 miles to swim! Philip made sure we knew how rough it can get out there, yet he will be right beside us every step of the way. We have to watch out for the rocks on the start and finish; especially the start, since we do not want to be bleeding into the water…
The Cook Stait is 16-nautical miles (18.41-statue miles) of rough, cold water – known to be inhabited by quite a diverse population of aquatic wildlife. Great Whites are not uncommon (roughly 20-25% of swims encounter them) therefore the swim has a rule unlike any other swim in the world – Craig and I are able to exit the water for a 10-minute period in order to allow the ‘critter’ to swim away. Philip said he would then dump some blood in the water and allow us to resume the swim (a unique sense of humor!) Kim Chambers did the swim about a year ago where she had plenty of dolphins alongside her – this is always a treat as an open water swimmer to have such beautiful mammals swimming right alongside you! I am praying for a pod to guide us along the journey!
Most of the swims are done in the daylight, however if we start later into the day (we have no control over what day, or time we start – it will depend on the water and weather) we could swim into the night which makes it that much more ‘interesting’ out there. Head lamps for the crew, glow sticks for Craig and I (as well as Philip being ‘lit up like a Christmas tree’) will allow us to navigate the dangerous waters until we finish successfully. When he asked about this being number 6 of 7, he was quite adamant about me finishing this swim, and the North Channel this summer. I was instructed there was no chance of not finishing this swim once I started, as Philip would not be allowing me back into the boat – this was not negotiable. I love this mentality; especially when you have the Michael Jordan of marathon swimmers giving you stern advice!
Craig and I finished another lap in the cold, then ate dinner with Kathy and May at a great Italian restaurant in downtown Wellington. Finished the night with some gelato outside the townhouse, and then were excited to get a full-night sleep for once!