Brian Gray from Mission Bay on feeding kumara to Waikato eels and getting lost

Brian Gray, spent his weekend swimming 150 km of the Waikato River. Photo / Ivan Polyntcev, RNZ

By RNZ

Mission Bay man Brian Gray spent his weekend swimming 150 km of the Waikato River.

It took him 30 hours without breaks to get from Karāpiro to Port Waikato.

The river’s current provided help along the way, but he didn’t finish the task without some drama - including getting lost and swimming the wrong way for a few hours.

“I’d gone and done test swims to see what the current was, because it starts off fast and gets slow, and then the last 15 to 20km can be quite tidal.

“So, you have to make sure you hit it at the right time. Otherwise, you can be swimming against the current, which is about 4km at its peak”.

But his best-laid plans went awry when it came to doing the actual swim, he told RNZ Nights.

“I measured my swim speed and my float speed, and I already knew my normal swim speed, because you decrease as you get more tired and swim longer, I put that on my spreadsheet and worked out how long it’s going to take me for each 10km section.”

However, because the boat to take him to the start point was over-loaded, the start time was delayed by an hour, he said.

More trouble was to come.

“When we’d done that test, they had the gate open so we went flying down.

“When we did the actual swim, the gate wasn’t open. I talked to Mighty River and asked them nicely if they’d open it for an hour or so, but they wouldn’t, wouldn’t play ball, bit rough, isn’t it?”

And about halfway into the swim, his “addled brain” sent him the wrong way.

“I thought I was following instructions and going up the river bank, but I’d turned around. I don’t know how you get lost on a one-way river. ”

Back on track, he had to keep his energy levels up, he wanted to keep his nutrition healthy and natural, he said.

“I was having mostly kumara, which lasted quite well for 10 hours, and then it sort of came up in one solid chunk. Not the best, feeding eels.”

Plan B was energy drinks, he said.

“I was taking athletic drinks that have high calories and gels and all those things are not really very good for you, but feeding me well, they get you through it.”

Night river swimming is like “staring at a wall for 31 hours”, Gray said.

“You’re not on your phone or watching telly or anything like that.

“So, you’ve got to be okay in your own mind and either think about things or switch off. I just seemed to switch off more, instead of thinking about stuff, instead of solving the world problems.

- RNZ