Ronel Cook spends her day surrounded by water.
But swimming is not her forte.
Getting on a bike and pedalling for a serious distance is what she loves best.
And she is pretty handy at it.
The bookings co-ordinator at Moana Pool won her section at the World 24 Hour Mountain Biking Championships in Rotorua late last month.
She did 311km of riding within the 24 hours over a 17km loop track and did better than she expected.
"I just wanted to last the 24 hours, really. It was a bit unexpected how well I did,'' she said.
"I probably only had the one tough period, about 3am-4am in the morning. There was no-one around, it was dark; I just started feeling a bit scratchy.
"But then I just took a five-minute break, had a bit to eat and got back on the bike.''
The loop course was mostly on a track in a forest and with it being a solo competition, there was no team riding.
Cook (40) won the 40-44 age group and finished eighth overall of the 25 females in the field.
Over the 311km she travelled in the 24 hours - about the distance between Dunedin and Tekapo - there was 5000m of climbing, so it was tough going.
"When I got off the bike the legs were pretty sore. It took me four to five days to walk properly afterwards. I went and had a dip in the hot pools in Rotorua straight after the race, which was great.''
She had the training behind her to survive the 24-hour race, which started in the middle of the day.
Training rides included trips to Alexandra from Dunedin and on the Otago Central Rail Trail and the Clutha Gold Trail.
Cook got into the sport about five years ago to improve her fitness.
The native South African, who has been in New Zealand for 14 years, was a body builder when she was younger but damaged her wrists.
She decided to get off the couch, jumped on the bike and has never looked back.
One title has driven her to go for more and she intends to head to Italy next year to defend her title.
