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Swim around Lake Taupo

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Swim around Lake Taupo

Swim around Lake Taupo ?

Every once in a while you come across a sporting endevour so mindboggling, you could call it fake news!

Except when it is attempted by my friend Katrina Price, when I know it is actually for real. So when she told me that she was training to swim the circumfence of Lake Taupo I knew this was not a joke. Nevertheless I was totally blown away by the idea. That is 155km from the sea planes in Taupo, counter clockwise all along the lake past Kinlock, past the western side, past Little Waihi, back to Taupo. I do know that there are people every year, who cycle around the lake and find that to be a challenge, but swim ? 

This is what it says on their website (you can also follow their progress here ) :

‘About the swim

In February 2011 Peter Cook completed an unassisted circumnavigation swim of Lake Taupo. Inspired by this and following in his foot steps, Katrina Price and Mike Cochrane are attempting an assisted tandem circumnavigation swim of Lake Taupo in February 2017.

The swim will be undertaken in The Spirit of Marathon Swimming, with a few modifications from Standard Equipment:

  • At times we will be swimming with tow floats for visiblity to allow out kayaker time out of the water to rest – it’s not just a long way for swimmers.
  • We will be wearing GPS watches that provide more than the standard chronometer information.

Route Description

Starting from Lake Taupo yacht club, we will swim an anti clockwise lap of Lake Taupo, staying within 200m of shore when safe to do so. The total swim distance is between 145 and 155km.

At the end of each stage/day of swimming a GPS location will be recorded to allow the swim to be restarted from the same or earlier position on the next stage. Where possible each stage will begin and end on land.

In some parts of the lake it may not be safe or pactical to swim within 200m of the shore, on these occasions we will swim as close as safe to the shore line. Known areas are the Waikato River outlet where currents can reach up to 3.5 knots, Stump bay (very shallow for 100s of meters), Outere (submerged logs). These deviations will be visible in our final GPS recordings.

At Bulli Point we will breifly leave the water then quickly return to it with the help of gravity – it’s just what you do when you’re at Bulli Point!

About the Swimmers 

Katrina Price

The brain child of the 2017 circumnavigation of Lake Taupo is Katrina Price. Katrina is an experienced endurance athlete having compled a number of ultra distance runs and swims. She is based in Thames, New Zealand and trains primarily in the pool and swimming up stream in rivers.

Mike Cochrane

Mike and Katrina first met ~60km into an ultramarathon where they ran together for about an hour before heading different ways. A year later they met again at a swim event in Wellington. When Katrina existind the water after completeing her length of Lake Taupo she delared “You’re next!” – staring straight at Mike. While not next, Mike went on to complete the length of Lake Taupo in 2016 after a number of shorter swims.