Last stroke in man’s epic charity swim
He did it.
After seven days of swimming, through golden days, rain and wind, Craig McKibbin has completed an 85 kilometre lap of Lake Waikaremoana’s edge.
The swim was the end point of 18 months of planning and training for the Matangi father of two, with more than $5000 raised for Hawke’s Bay’s U-Turn trust.
The February 8 start day was misty and wet as McKibbin left wearing a thick wetsuit and towing his raft of supplies.
But by the second day the wind was so strong he was stuck in his tent in a patch of dense bush under Panekire Bluff.
‘‘It was pretty miserable,’’ he said.
But that afternoon the cloud lifted and the wind dropped away enough to fit in 3km of swimming.
For the next three days he described the conditions as ‘‘golden’’ with the lake ‘‘like a mill pond’’, followed by more bad weather as he paddled across the finish line after seven days of swimming.
After seven days of freeze-dried food, his first meal out of the water was crayfish and a beer.
Leading up to the swim McKibbin said his major concerns were the cold lake and wind blowing his raft.
‘‘The one thing I was a little bit nervous about was the water temperature.’’
But thanks to his preparations and thick wetsuit he was comfortable in the water, but feeling cold by the end of each swimming leg.
‘‘In togs you would say it was refreshing and you wouldn’t want to stick around too long.’’
Even in bad weather McKibbin said he was focused on enjoying being on the lake.
‘‘Even when you have your rough days it’s good not to be in a pool following that black line,’’ he said.
‘‘Once it’s over it’s over for ever. I was just trying to take everything in and enjoy the surroundings.’’
During his nights in the tent he said he came across many possums and heard a deer bolt as he opened his tent.
He will keep the swimming up but had no plans to attempt any- thing on this scale again.
The Givealittle page collecting donations for the U-Turn trust closes at the end of February.
McKibbin selected the trust, which supports troubled teens, following a visit to Flaxmere last year to mark 20 years since his brother Glenn, a community constable, was shot dead at work.