Hataitai Beach on Wellington Anniversary Day, Monday Holiday

 Hi there

What a nice day today.  Too warm, actually.  After about only ten minutes at the beach, I felt the sun piercing right through my skin to my bones.  I had to cover up.  At least the crummy so-called summer weather appears to be changing for the best, and the sea has warmed up, somewhat.  Tomorow is going to be hotter, just when the last Christmas/New Year stragglers will be back to work....

above:  Hataitai Beach.  Wellington Anniversary Day Yacht Race

***

PS.    I got sunburnt.  So much for sunblock!

Still swimming

 Hi there

I'm still winter swimming at Hataitai Beach, my 15th winter-swimming year.  

Jay, The Young One, and I swam together for ten years . For a few years after my swimming friends' lives had gone in other directions, I swam in the lonely cold winter sea all by myself.

But then Covid came and the whole country was shut down. No swimming allowed.

Freedom came in the month of March and, suddenly, the beach was crowded.  Under normal circumstances swimmers would all but have given up with the onset of cooler days.

But this time, many never stopped swimming.  It was as if having lost their freedom during a covid summer, they were going to make up for such an outrage by swimming through the winter. 

Today, there are lots of swimmers, all of them bubbling away with the joy of a cold winter sea.  And me?  I'm getting jaded because of ...

being dictated to by the tide times, and the sea and air temps;

the gradual  disappearance of the sun on the deck;

the winter shadows that completely cover the water in the bay;

the aching coldness of the sea;

the absolutely freezing changing sheds where after a swim my fingers are so numb I can't hook up my bra, do up buttons or zips, or pull up sleeves, and all this forces me to  stay longer in the shed, getting colder by the minute;

the bone-chilling cold that is often inside me for a couple of hours post-swim if I don't make it home fast enough for my hot shower, 

and

the fact that I have to give up so much of my ordinary life because I'm ruled by my swims...

Hey ... Do you think I will be swimming next winter?

sorry for moaning...

Hataitai Beach Shower

 Hi there 

The powers-that-be are mumbling about how Wellingtonians should be conserving water, what with the summer heat, and naughty house residents using water hoses.

I remember about ... oh, ten years ago (?) the city council, during a water shortage,  took the nozzles out of the showers at Hataitai Beach.  I hope they've forgotten about what they did way back then -

 above:  the shower cabinet without the shower nozzle.  Hataitai Beach.

The changing rooms have been renovated since the above picture.

Births, Deaths, Marriages at Hataitai Beach

Hi there

Last weekend, there was a marriage in the little park beside the beach.  What a lovely bride.  Drinkies and canapes before and after for the guests.  A swish sit-down affair.

Several times over the summer, I've witnessed  adult and children baptisms in the shallows. 

And my readers of old may well remember I arrived one morning at Hataitai Beach to discover a posh group in their Sunday best drinking from champagne glasses, and swanning around on the sun-deck.

 I rudely pushed through the group thinking how dare this lot monopolise my space?

The water at the bottom of the steps had some white-ish murky stuff to it but, intrepid adventurer that I am, I swam through it.

Across the bay I swam.  And back again, through the white stuff.

Then, a repeat.  And another.  And more.  Eight times I swam through the white spotty murkiness.

I finished with a triple seal roll just to show that I wasn't scared of no white stuff.  It was probably foam.  I climbed up the steps, shook myself. 

A finely-dressed middle-aged lady approached me.  "I suppose you wonder what we're doing here?  My uncle died," she said.  "He loved this beach.  We've just scattered his ashes-"

We both looked to the bottom of the steps to where I had swam, not once, not twice but eight times through the old gentleman's ashes.  Not to mention those darn seal rolls!

I'm telling you right now, my four beloved readers, that I rushed into the changing shed and showered solidly for about 25 minutes.  I used up a three-quarter full bottle of hair shampoo in an attempt to thoroughly cleanse myself.

Some film-maker should one day make a soap opera or a sitcom about the doings at Hataitai Beach.  For a fee, I would be prepared to act as consultant.

Swam every day in June

Hi there

Okay, okay, it's the second of June,  but we've swam both today and yesterday!   Today, we swam in the rain - no, please I beg you not to say it;   don't call us 'mad' because we get that all the time.  Think about brave?  Or heroic?

Last month, May,  we got in ten swims.   I guess we will soon put light t-shirts on over our bathing suits.  Our Hataitai Beach mid-winter swim is in three weeks.

Second swim for July at Hataitai Beach, Wellington, New Zealand

Hi there
Yesterday, we had our second swim for July at Hataitai Beach, and this time we got much (much) further than the previous day.  We are hoping for four swims this month.  I hope we can manage it.  But once we make up our minds to do something,  both J and myself get ultra-upset if we can't reach our goal.  So, excluding extreme storms, illnesses, holidays, locust infestations, and alien attacks, we intend to let nothing stand in our way with this month's 4-swim-minimum.  Oops, at this late date in the month have we committed ourselves...?

Most of the steps and surroundings that broke away from the deck during The Big Storm have been cleared away by Wellington City Council, but there were still, maybe, half a dozen bits of woods floating in the water around the shoreline.  Some of these scraps of wood had vicious-looking nails attached.  Yesterday, I forgot my swimming booties (aside:  I only wear them in the winter) and I was so scared trekking out into the sea from the shore.  Without my glasses, I'm as blind as a bat.  Who knew what nailed atrocity I might step on.

Here's a pic that J's fearless pet photographer took of us in the water.  As you can see, we have the moves down perfectly.  Esther Williams, eat your heart out!

There was a sort of rolling earthquake (tremor) this morning in Wellington.  I was talking to my friend, A.J., on the phone.  She fearlessly kept on talking as I hared into the dining room and cowered under the table.