Swimmer battles appalling weather on three day ordeal

Swimming in atrocious conditions, a Dargaville woman has completed one leg of her planned three-day epic swim from Kelly's Bay, on Pouto Peninsula, to Dargaville.
The distance swim is one of the drawcard events for the Kaipara Kai Festival today.
Teacher Deborah Hambly left Kelly's Bay on Thursday morning to swim the 17km leg of the planned three-day swim, reaching her Tikinui destination around 12.20pm on Thursday. She was scheduled to complete Tikinui to Te Kopuru (14km) yesterday and is expected to arrive in Dargaville about 2.30pm today.
Thursday's swim was the roughest she had ever swum - "with the bitter winds, rain and choppy conditions making it difficult to take breaths" without swallowing mouthfuls of the notorious muddy Northern River water, she said. She wondered at times whether she would be forced to quit.
Kitted out with a 3mm racing wetsuit, fluorescent wrist and ankle bands, a shark shield and a SwimP3 player, Ms Hambly took 15-20 minute breaks during the swim for hot soup, food and drinks.
"For the first couple of hours the water felt cold on my face ... and I worried about whether I would still be warm enough several hours into the swim."
Approaching Ruawai however, the current picked up and she noticed her support crew pointing wildly in the opposite direction to the one she'd been swimming in. "I'd taken the shark shield off - so I have to admit my first thought was that there was some sort of wildlife about - not that it would necessarily want to have me as Kaipara kai - but something obviously was worth my attention." She suddenly realised she had been driven off course and was swimming in the wrong direction.
Forced to concentrate on staying with the rise and fall of the waves, Ms Hambly focused on the music, altered her breathing to one breath every four on the non-wave side and kept going.
Unable to make it out of the main current to swim to shore she ended her four hour swim mid-river at Tikinui.
Apart from rubbing from a zipper on her wetsuit, minor discomfort in her stomach and left shoulder, she said she experienced no real pain or chill.
Ms Hambly only last week returned from competing in the Asia Pacific games where she picked up nine gold and one bronze medal. Seven of the medals were for individual swimming, including an late entry into a diving competition with the other three being for relays.