Organisers of the annual Ruby Swim, Eddie Spearing and Jamie Norman, said in 2014 they were sitting on the shore at Roys Bay having a beer after their regular swim around the Lake Wanaka island for exercise and thought "Why not make it an event?"
Mr Norman said they thought maybe 25 locals might enter.
Mr Spearing said it took 10 months to organise the first Ruby Swim, in January 2015, and they had 160 entrants. However, a 35 knot wind blew for the entire weekend, raising 2m swells behind Ruby Island, and the swim had to be cancelled.
The Ruby Swim has been held every year since then. This year, entrant numbers were capped at 465 and events sold out days ago.
"We have quite a few entrants fly down from Auckland and Wellington on the Friday, do the Ruby Island swim on the Saturday, fly out in the afternoon and do the ocean swim in Wellington the next day," Mr Spearing said.
"Before Covid, we were getting people and families from Sydney and Perth come over and enter," Mr Norman said.
Yesterday, while organisers were setting up for this year’s event, four members of the 10-strong Auckland ocean swimming Fur Seals team were practising swimming in fresh water.
Team member Linda Collard has been coming to Wanaka for the Ruby Swim every year for the past four years and said it was "right up there" with the best.
"It is beautiful, it is magic here. We all come down and make a long weekend of it. We hike Roys Peak and this afternoon we are hiking Diamond Lake.
"It is a great way for us to have a get-together and enjoy this beautiful country," she said.
All events start from Waterfall Creek, at the lake end of Ruby Island Rd.
The fastest man and woman competing in The Ruby (2.5km), a category in which entrants race one lap around Ruby Island, each year receive a ring.
Other events include the Ruby10 (10km), the Ruby5 (5km) the Iron Ruby (3.8km), The Return of the Jetty (1.2km), The Island (600m) and the Little Gems 200m for children.
