NZ Lake Taupo

We made it!
Both teams of five men and six women were successful in completing the triple crossing of Lake Taupo on 5/6th January 2009.
It was a truly wonderful event, the weather was great, mostly fine with light winds with just a few bumpy patches along the way.
The first hour was swum by myself and Steve Junk, we had been training in the the lake together a few days prior to the BIG swim and were about the same speed, we were swimming neck and neck gradually getting closer to one another, then swam together grinning at one another for the remainder of our first hour.
This was a true indication of the spirit of our special event. Over the next 33 hours the lead change often between the girls and the guys making for a challenging and interesting couple of days on the lake.
Even as the men's last swimmer hit the water during final hour our girls were on the chase and catching their man.
The finishing times were; men 33hrs 31 min.51, women 33hrs 33 min.45.
Quite incredible to be so close after so many hours and 120.6 klms of swimming!

The following day the swimmers, families and gathered for morning tea which lead into lunch, followed by relaxing in the hot mineral spa pools close by.
There was some good fun and laughs to be had as we all had a few turns on the dragon slide, some of us had more turns than others!
Then it was back to the accommodation for a few quiet drinks and a group BBQ dinner.
The atmosphere and friendships continued to grow, it had been a truly memorable few days......But it wasn't over yet, six of us were planning a day long walk the following day, Chris was wanting to do the Tongariro track whilst in NZ.

The following day, bright and early found Chris, Penny, Michelle, Lucy, Dougal and Mark being picked up by bus and taken to the start of the walk. This is were "Lucy the mountain goat" showed us how to do things, wow can she walk! Well we all made the journey, the team camaraderie ever growing and friendships flourished, the scenery was also spectacular.

So that's my short version of our NZ trip keep watching this blog for Chris' article on our wonderful trip. - Cumming soon.