Tuesday December 30 – January 1st

I didn’t know what to expect as I climbed on the plane to head down to New Zealand for the Triple Lake swim.   However, like I said before, you don’t turn down an opportunity to meet some of the big names in marathon swimming when they have asked you to participate in a relay.  Plus this was another great excuse for me to get back to New Zealand.

I climbed on the plane ready for a great adventure and an opportunity to get to know more swimmers.  The plane was half empty which means that I had 3 seats to myself which is great on a long flight.  I managed to work my way through one book, 3 movies and a few hours of sleep.  As we hit midnight on New Year’s eve the flight attendants quietly walked through the cabin and whisper blew some horns and quietly whispered “Happy New Year”.  I thought it was pretty amusing.  Plus they had taken the time to decorate the plane with streamers and balloons.  There was some pretty bad turbulance where even I was white knuckling it for an hour or so.  There was one point where there was such a large drop that I think the whole plane was jarred awake and there was some screaming.  The pilot only came on the PA and asked the flight attendants to take their seats.  It wasn’t until we landed that he explained that the plane and their skills were fully equipted to handle that type of turbulance.  I was thinking that announcement could have come 10 hours earlier.

Ok so I landed in Auckland and then it was one last flight before I met the Palfreys in Taupo.  Luckily my 2 bags were 49.7 and 49 pounds respectively so they squeeked under the baggage charge, with the exception of the little puddle jumper to Taupo.  After I saw the plane I was wondering if they would even take my bags.  They did…thankfully as I had the t-shirts for the team.

I landed in Taupo and Chris and Penny arrived shortly afterwards to pick me up.  Chris and Penny are from Townsville Australia Queensland.  Now I had only met Chris and Penny for about 30 seconds before we jumped into the Hudson River for the Manhattan swim.  I wasn’t sure what I was in for and I bet they felt the same way.  I didn’t need to worry.  We got on like gang busters.  Chris and Penny took me back to our little cabin.  It was a small but very cozy place and it had a great view.  We sat down for a great breakfast and time to relax.  After breakfast, we headed out to Huka Falls. 

That afternoon we went for a nice stretch out swim.  Lake Taupo was a beautiful temperature.  My guess was that it was around 66 degrees.  It was nice to be back out in some open water, as I was getting very tired of training in a pool. 

Chris, Penny and I enjoyed a great dinner and realized as we were getting ready for bed that it seemed like we had been on vacation for weeks and that it didn’t seem like we had just really met about 7 hours earlier.  I knew this trip was off to a great start.  

Friday January 2nd

We started getting into the normal routine of a morning swim and breakfast.  And honestly, I can’t remember what we did this day.  Oh I think we spent some time in town as I didn’t bring the right international adapter, so we were looking for this.  And then we also did some shopping for folks back home. 

Then in the afternoon it was time for a nap, which was also part of the normal routine…I could really get used to this pattern.  Philip Rush, event and boat organizer, came over for a little chat about the swim.  Man did he have some great stories.   

For the afternoon swim, we met up with Barbara, Peter, Michael and Steve Junk.  This crew came from Perth Australia.  Peter and Michael took some photos of the swimmers and then were off for a run.  And then Barbara, Steve, Chris, Penny and I went out for another short swim.

After the swim, we hit a local pub for some drinks and socializing.  I quickly became the target for many smart comments.  I suppose I was at a disadvantage as being the only American.   But it was very educational for me.  Apparently swimsuits are togs.  Plus it was just another fun evening.  This was turning out to be a great adventure. 

January 3rd

We began our normal routine by heading down to the Lake for a morning swim.  The water was a little chopper today as there was a wind and it was kind of rainy.  We swam out to the floating golf green.  Apparently it is a challenge where people can tee off from the shore into different golf holes and if they get it inot certain holes they win money.  Chris and Penny figured that we could work out some sort of trick by putting a golf ball in the hole while swimming and then go to tee off.  We never did try it.  Our goal was to not get beaned in the head as we circled the floating golf green.

After swimming we always headed back to the cabin for breakfast.  Then it was off to our next adventure of Orakei Korako, a geyserland and cave wonderland.  It was beautiful if only a little smelly. At Orakei Korako there is a cave pool where if you put in your left hand and make a secret wish, it is guaranteed to come true.  Needless to say, we all made our wishes.

For dinner, we ate in and invited Stephen Spence who had just arrived into town.  This evening we also had Heather Osborne, Julie Bradshaw and Lucy Roeper stop by.  This was going to be so much fun.  I had to continually pinch myself to believe that this was all real.

January 4th

It is the day before the swim and of course we go for our morning swim and breakfast.  Then the team is going to arrive at the cabin for the safety meeting.  Over the past few days, the team have been rolling into town and now we were all here. 

At 12, we all met for the meeting and to go over the rules.  We were swimming in FINA approved suits, maintaining same rotation throughout the swim and if a swimmer was injured or couldn’t continue the team would continue with one less swimmer.  It would end up being about 120k swim (~63 miles).  Rotation would happen after an hour of swimming.  Unlike running relays, open water swimming relays go by time not by distance, so each swimmer swims for an hour and then another swimmer gets in to take over after an hour.  We took some team photos and set the order of the swimmers.

After the team meeting it was over to the Pack N Save to do a group shop to get all the food for the boat.  It was an interesting shop as the men’s team was together and the women’s team was together, but we kept looking at each others carts and there was some borrowing of goods.  The men had made it to the bakery first and cleared out all the scones.  The women weren’t exactly pleased so we borrowed some of the scones.  Once the shopping was done it was back to the cabin to rest and get ready for the GREAT adventure.

Early to bed as we had to have the boats loaded and ready to go by 2:30am.  Ugh. that is early.

Pre-swim photos.  I did put comments to help explain.  Hopefully they come across.

Both relay teams finished with remarkable times. Men 33hrs 31min 15 sec, women 33 hrs 33 mine 45 sec. Geat day for open water swimmers everwhere. The first time this crossing has been done three times by two relay teams. My hat is off the all swimmers. Each swimmer swam 6 hours at least. Nice way to begin the new year of  swimming.

Michelle will be posting her expereince regarding swim in the near future.

Posted by Michelle’s dad, Tom

Michelle has completed 6th and her final leg, I think. THe relay teams are close to finishing. Both teams on final crossing. men in the lead, just a little. Penny had taken the lead for the women but the women could not hold it. Time is on the woman’s side. I think the women will prevail.

Posted by Michelle’s dad, Tom

Michelle has completed her third and fourth leg. First night almost over. Lake has a light chop not bad. They are having boat trouble. Will keep people updated. So far so good. Michelle had supper after her fourth leg.

Updated by Michelle’s dad, Tom

The women’s relay with Heather swimming finished the first crossing. The women are 5 minutes behind the men. The first crossing in 10 hours and 35 minutes. GO GO GO

Posted by Michelle’s dad Tom

The teams have been in the water for 9 hours 20+ to go. Michelle has completed  two legs swimming 2 hours 1 hour per leg. Each member swims 1 hour. The order of the swimmers must remain the same. The relay teams are neck and neck for now. Weather cloudy (this is good for Michelle). Water is calm and the water temp is in the 60’s. Julie and Chris were in the water for their respective teams. More updates later.

Post by Michelle’s dad, Tom.

Well it is the afternoon before the big relay swim and the groceries are purchased, the debriefing has occurred and I think the teams are all set to go.  Before I go and have a lie down I thought I would give the update.  There are 2 relay teams each swimming a triple crossing of Lake Taupo on the North Island of New Zealand.  There is a 6 person woman team and a 5 person male team.  Our overall team goal is for each relay team to successfully make the triple crossing and have a rip roaring good time.   I believe that the total distance will be 120.6 kilometers.

Obviously there will be some friendly competition between the teams.  Right now we are pretty evenly tied for time even with the disparate number of people.  I do believe that we will finish very close to each other.  Or at least that is my private goal with the women stepping on the beach perhaps just a little before the men.

Here is the breakdown of the teams and order of swimmers (from first to last):

Mens Team:

Steve – Australia

Mark – New Zealand

Dougal – Australia

Chris – Australia

Stephen – Australia

Women’s Team:

Penny – Australia

Michelle – USA

Barb – Australia

Heather – New Zealand

Julie – UK

Lucy – UK

Rumor has it that there will be mobile service for the whole swim, so I hopefully will be texting my parents and they will be updating my blog.  This is of course all dependent on mobile service and how busy I am with the swim.  Our guesstimate is that it will take us 12 hours per leg of the lake for a total swim of 36 hours.  Each swimmer must swim a 1 hour leg and then the next swimmer gets in for an 1 hour leg and so on and so forth.  This means that I will swim for an hour and then have 5 hours before my next swim.  The order of the swimmers must remain the same throughout the entire swim.  Water temp is around 18-20 degrees C (66-70 degrees F – very rough calculation).

Looks like our biggest challenge is going to be the New Zealand sun as it is beating down and sunburn is a definite possibility, especially with my fair freckled skin and red hair.  Luckily I packed a lot of sun screen.

Like I stated earlier, we will be starting around 5am New Zealand time (8am PST, 11am EST) tomorrow.  So watch for updates and cheer all of us on!

Ok after some minor snafus, I have things situated. Even with squeaking under the baggage weight limit, I forgot some items at home. Mainly I forgot all the pieces to my international adapter, which meant that I wouldn’t be able to charge my computer. Then the places that I was staying mentioned that they were having trouble with their wireless network, which I found surprising because I could see the network and connect to it, but that is another story.

So today we have located an international plug in adapter, the wireless is working and I’m back on line. As my dad stated, the flights were very long. I flew from Portland to LA, LA to Auckland, and Auckland to Taupo. Somewhere in the air I crossed the international date line, so New Year’s was celebrated in the air. The long flight was pretty uneventful with the exception of about 2 hours where there was extreme turbulance. And I mean extreme. I’m a pretty seasoned traveler so it takes a lot for me to start white knuckling it on the plane, but I was hanging on for dear life. The only message over the PA was “Flight Attendants to your seats”. I think that did little to calm the passengers that were screaming. Only after we landed did the pilot explain that the aircraft was fully equipped to handle that type of turbulance. Thanks could have used that message about 10 hours prior during the turbulance.

Anyways, I landed safetly and Penny and Chris Palfrey picked me up from the Taupo airport which is more like a one room station. Apparently I had assumed that Taupo was larger than it was. I think that the 10 seater plane where the flight attendant was also the co-pilot should have been my first clue that I wasn’t headed someplace really large.

Penny, Chris and I spent the day getting to know one another. We started off with breakfast and then spent most of the day relaxing before an afternoon swim. After one day together it was just amazing. First it seemed like we had already spent 2 weeks together and we were getting along swimmingly (pun intended). I also had the opportunity to meet Philip Rush who was helping organize all the particulars of the swim like pilots, boats, etc. A good laugh was had by all sitting overlooking Lake Taupo and enjoying some cold beers.

Yesterday, 2 more of the swimmers arrived and really does just seem like one big extended family. I haven’t really experienced the ackwardness that usually comes with meeting new people. I find myself spending a lot of time just laughing and really enjoying the company. I have been really blessed to be asked to be apart of this amazing journey.

The rest of the swimmers are arriving throughout today and I would imagine that I’ll meet them either tonight or tomorrow morning. According to Philip the swim will go off on Monday at around 5am. Unfortunately, I will not have this blog updated during the swim as I don’t have anything like that arranged and I’m not sure my phone will work on the lake.

For those that are curious about the time change, I’m 3 hours behind Pacific Time, but I’m a day ahead. For example, if it is 1pm in Portland Oregon it is 11am here, but it is the next day. So the swim will go off at around 8am PST on Sunday January 4th (or 5am NZ time on Monday January 5th).

I’ll be in touch very soon.

Michelle made it to Lake Taupo on the North island of New Zealand. The plane ride was long, 1 book, three movies, 5 hours sleep, three seats to myself heaven. My luggage was under weight 49.7 and 49. The other members are coming in over the next few day. Weather is warm. More later

Posted January 1 my Michelle’s father