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Undertaking a rare long-distance winter swim of Lake Whakatipu this week is 19-year-old Otago Polytechnic sport and exercise student Jemimah McIlroy.
She left on Tuesday to swim from Glenorchy to Queenstown — about 50km — over five days as part of her preparation for a Cook Strait attempt this summer.
She’s undertaking the chilly challenge with four Aucklanders — two who are also swimming and two kayakers.
"They made the plan and messaged me on Instagram asking if I wanted to join them — I didn’t know them previously."
On Tuesday, McIlroy intended reaching Pigeon Island with her crew and staying there overnight — "then we have cars parked down the lake for the other nights".
"We are going to play it by ear on the third and fourth days, depending on the weather and how we feel.
"If we think it will be too unsafe we won’t swim, as it’s pretty inaccessible from the road on those days."
Unlike her Cook Strait attempt and warm-up swims around Dunedin, McIlroy’s donning a wetsuit for Lake Whakatipu.
"Since we are swimming about 10km per day, the cold will definitely be a challenge, as well as having the endurance to get back in and do the next day when we are sore."
McIlroy also swam 1km in Queenstown Bay last Saturday in The RealNZ Whakatipu Legend winter swim — she won the women’s non-wetsuited category.
Amazingly, she only learnt to swim when she was 15 as she wanted to compete in triathlons. However, after a running injury she’s concentrated on swimming.
"I needed something to motivate me to not sit on the couch and eat chips," she tells the Otago Daily Times.
