Queenstown endurance swimmer Liana Smith’s set the hugely ambitious goal of becoming the first person to swim the 82km length of Lake Whakatipu without a wetsuit.
To date, the only swimmer to conquer New Zealand’s longest lake was wetsuit-clad Ben Campbell-MacDonald, of Wellington, who completed the feat in 2012 in 18hr 42min.
He’d tried the distance three years earlier, without a wetsuit, but had to be pulled out of the water due to motion sickness.
Smith — who’s hosting a fundraiser in Arrowtown this Saturday for safety support costs for her attempt — plans tackling the lake, most likely from Kingston to Glenorchy, whenever conditions allow between late next month and mid-March.
She’s being advised by Kiwi long distance swimming legend Philip Rush, and estimates she’ll take 32 to 36 hours.
The 28-year-old’s previous longest swim was the 40.2km length of Lake Taupo in 2021.
That was the start of her successful quest to become the eighth person to complete the NZ ‘triple crown’ — she swam Cook Strait the following month, then completed Foveaux Strait nine months later in February, 2022, in 6hr 19min 45sec (for which she was recently awarded a Guinness World Record).
Her training for Lake Taupo was the first time she’d been in the water for seven years — at 17, having been an NZ title-holder and record-breaker, she had to stop for a spinal fusion.
Due to her ensuing mental struggles, her triple crown became a fundraiser for youth mental health charity I Am Hope — which is again her charity this time, via a Givealittle page.
Smith says her biggest training blocks for her upcoming swim have been consecutive 60km weeks in November — "a 10km swim is theequivalent of a marathon, so it’s like doing six marathons a week".
The lake’s coldness — about 12 degrees — will be her biggest challenge, especially without a wetsuit.
As to why she’s taking on the challenge, which many tell her is impossible, Smith says "my basic answer is, why not?"
"It’s there, why not give it a crack, you know, old Sir Edmund Hillary’s mindset.
"But I think I quite like the idea of finding where my limit is and finding what I’m capable of.
"Not to the point of insanity or going dangerously or unrealistically into goals, but I quite like seeing what my body can do, because I’ve gone through a period of not being able to use my body to its potential."
Saturday’s fundraiser at the Arrowtown Athenaeum Hall, from 6pm till 11pm, is to fund two support boats with specialised personnel onboard.
