Chill too much for swimmer
IT was not the distance.
It was not the boredom.
It was not the weather.
It was simply the cold that ended Fiona Fairbairn’s attempt to swim the 46km length of Wanaka on Good Friday.
Ms Fairbairn told the Otago Daily Times this week her support crew ‘‘pulled the pin’’ on her just 8km short of her goal of reaching Roys Bay, in Wanaka.
The decision came when she got to the point of being unable to answer questions.
She recalls now she was not tired, but she did feel as if she had forgotten how to swim.
‘‘I couldn’t answer questions or swim or do anything.’’
The professional swimming instructor set out from the Makarora end of the lake, in a wetsuit, in a water temperature of 13degC.
The temperature did not rise beyond 15degC during her 12 and ahalf hours in the water.
Since the swim, Ms Fairbairn had been reflecting on how she might have approached the swim differently.
She believed she had the swimming background and had done sufficient training, but could have spent more time acclimatising.
‘‘Maybe I should have done more coldwater swimming leading up to it.’’
And, although she still felt very tired, she said she enjoyed the experience, apart from the last 40 minutes.
‘‘The first few hours was dark, we had a beautiful sunrise, we had flat calm, we had big waves, we had southerly, we had northerly, so there was just a lot to keep me going.’’
And she has not discounted the possibility of making another attempt, possibly even in the opposite direction.
The swim has raised more than $6000 for the Darryl Fairbairn Memorial Fund, which provides funding for youth counselling through Community Networks Wanaka.
Ms Fairbairn said a huge number of donations arrived at her Givealittle page when word got out she had been lifted out of the water and taken to the Wanaka Lakes Health Centre.