Taupo

Wahi Bay to Acacia Bay 40.2km

On 14th February 2019 Caitlin O’Reilly swam the length of Lake Taupo in 13 hours and twenty-six minutes. In doing so she became 2nd youngest person and the youngest female swimmer at the age of 14 years to do so.

Her swim on the day started at 3:48am in the dark of a cool misty morning from the southern shore of Wahi Bay Taupo.

In her post interviews Caitlin said that the hardest part of the swim was starting. She remembers asking herself “What am I doing – it’s a long way!” but put her head down and got on with it.

The first one and a half hours of the swim were in the pitch black, no moon and low cloud. Phil Rush ( Legendary marathon swimmer and swim pilot ) had placed glow sticks on Caitlin and they and the lights from the RIB, support boat and those on the shore behind were all that could be seen.

The local conditions at the Wahi Bay end of the lake are typically a little sloppy and this morning was no exception. The first hours were hard for Caitlin to keep a good rhythm going as it was so dark and hard to judge the waves but as she cleared the mouth of the bay the lake smoothed slightly off, although still grey with 100% cloud cover, she was swimming stronger. By 08:00 she had completed twelve kilometres.

To keep her body hydrated, energy levels up and a chance to monitor how Caitlin was feeling we were stopping every half hour. Due to feeling a little off peak early on Caitlin mostly kept to drinking Powerade and the odd Dinosaur to keep her going. Phil’s positivity and creativity in how not to tell a swimmer how far they have to go probably helped as well!

By 11:30am the cloud had all but burnt off and the lake was like a mill pond. Caitlin had swum 22km and was just over half way - her longest swim by time in the water, she was still swimming strongly and her stroke rate had been remarkably consistent.

By 13:45pm Taupo had turned on a stunner of a day and Caitlin had swum 30km. Still swimming confidently she was keeping her work pace up and clocking the kilometers over with no apparent slackening.

As she approached Acacia Bay and the town of Taupo, what had been an isolated swim apart from her support crew became more busy with locals and tourists who approached in their kayaks and cruise boats to question where she had swam from. The added support gave Caitlin the spur she needed to keep digging and push hard for the last 5km to the head of the bay.

At 3:45pm, 13 hours and twenty six minutes after her start, she stepped ashore on the beach in front of the Taupo Yacht Club to the cheers of her family and support crew.

Marathon swims are just as much about the training leading up to the day as much as the swim on the day itself.

Her mainstay for training is her squads training with Coast. Her schedule over the last year and a half has doubled, and she now swims eight times for an hour and a half a week plus gym sessions. On her off day / afternoons she’s decided to take up rowing with Roger Kerr after school on Lake Pupuke.

To keep up with the amount of calories she was burning each session we ( parents ) knew that her eating needed to be more regimented and to enable this we took her to see Dane Baker in August 2018, whom put together an easy to follow / implement nutritional program that Caitlin follows. This program doesn’t preclude anything but ensures she is eating enough for the heavy training she is doing.

Leading up to the swim she partnered up for a number of longer swims with Jacquelyn Schirmer who was also training for Lake Taupo – these swims included Lang’s Beach to Mangawhai, Long Bay to Takapuna, Hen & Chicks (Tauranga Island) to Mangawhai. Swimming in the ocean presents a multitude of problems to overcome such as chafing, irritable sea life, and of course the fear of the unseen!