On Wednesday, the Tūhura Otago Museum board chairman and University of Otago physics professor attempted to swim across the 22km-26km cold and unpredictable stretch of water to raise money for a much-needed new fire sprinkler system at the museum.
Yesterday, given his physical state, it was still too early to say when he might make another attempt, he said.
‘‘That’s like asking a mother whether she’ll have more kids the day after she’s given birth.
‘‘The pain will fade, and then, yeah, we’ll see.
‘‘It’s that pain of not getting what you want that lingers longest, but to be fair, it’s not something I’m going to obsess about.
‘‘If the opportunity were to present itself again, I could do it.’’
While he was disappointed not to complete the challenging swim, he had enjoyed the experience.
‘‘I have to say, the whole thing was great fun and really interesting.
‘‘But it just wasn’t our day. We got into a situation where the tide was going one way, the wind was going another, and I was stuck in the middle going nowhere.’’
On the same day, two other swimmers made the crossing from the South Island to the North Island in six hours, but Prof Hutchinson had no regrets about choosing to start on the north side.
‘‘It’s just the way the tide was running.
‘‘One of those swimmers who completed yesterday [January 28], she swam for 28km on Monday [January 26] from the South Island, trying to go to the North Island, and she got in exactly the same situation as me. She wasn’t even halfway.
‘‘So it really just depends on what the tide does on the day and we were just unlucky.
‘‘There’s nothing else I could have done on the day to have actually made it.
‘‘It wouldn’t have mattered if I was a bit fitter, a bit stronger, or a bit faster — it just wasn’t going to happen.’’
Prof Hutchinson said he was now planning other ways to raise money for the museum’s new fire sprinkler system.
‘‘I’m doing a more manageable swim in March — the Lake Wakatipu Legends Challenge... just 4km. That’ll be a fun swim.’’
