Three-day hike part of challenge to swim all of South Island's 344 lakes
From reporter Debbie Jamieson:
Liana Smith hiked for three days to plunge into Otago’s remote Lake Unknown and do her part in a challenge to swim all 344 lakes in the South Island.
Smith is a hiking guide and accomplished swimmer who completed the “triple crown” of New Zealand swims last year – swimming Lake Taupo (40.2km), Cook Strait (22km) and Foveaux Strait (28km).
She is also a member of the Queenstown-based Southern Lakes Swimming Club, which established the Lake Attack Aotearoa 2023 challenge, encouraging swimmers everywhere to help complete the goal of swimming all 344 South Island lakes before May.
“I love pushing myself, and I'm in constant pursuit to find my physical and mental limits in life,” Smith said.
The challenge gave her an excuse to take on the solo expedition to Lake Unknown, in Mt Aspiring National Park, which had been on her adventure list for a few years.
It is also the most remote and ambitious of the 50 swims logged so far on the Lake Attack website.
Others include a New Year's Day swim in chilly Lake Alta at the Remarkables ski area, undertaken by several members of the club including Paul Jaquin who swam in the 8C water without a wetsuit.
The challenge was open to everyone and people needed to swim for only 10 minutes to log the event.
The 344 South Island lakes were those identified on Topographic maps, but more were being added as people found them, Ashford-Tait said.
Swimmers were also encouraged to log useful information on water quality and biodiversity, which would be collated by club members.
The challenge opened on Christmas Day and there had already been participants from the south, Christchurch and Blenheim.
While the club would like to see every lake swum, the website does warn swimmers to be safe, not swim if the water quality is not suitable, and avoid spreading lake nasties such as didymo.
Queenstown teenager Jacob Marriott is leading the statistics on the group’s website so far with the most swims completed (23), the longest time swimming (370 minutes) and the furthest distance swum (11.3km).
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
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62.2% Summer
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36.4% Winter
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1.5% Other - I'll share below
Worst Xmas ever?
There's a a lot of planning that goes into Christmas day and sometimes things just don't go to plan. But it can be a good thing - a family mishap or hilarious memory that you can laugh about in Christmases to come.
Whether you burnt the dinner or were stranded at an airport...
Share your Christmas mishaps below!
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