July 15, 2025 • 56 mins
Wellington Harbourmaster Grant Nalder oversees navigation in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. That involves monitoring the movement of vessels (ships, boats, waka, etc.), managing marker buoys, and also, increasingly, looking out for ocean swimmers.
On this episode we talk about:
- the role of the Harbourmaster
- the importance of swimmers being visible to boats (tow floats are mandatory for swimmers who are more than 200m offshore – see the bylaw details below), and also the need for boaties to be aware of swimmers
- the near miss one swimmer, who was new to the area, had with a ferry in 2024 when they inadvertently swam in the shipping channel
- the water features enjoyed by swimmers in Oriental Bay (pontoons, buoys, the Carter saltwater fountain, Pt Jerningham Lighthouse)
- the pink swim buoys being added to the Oriental Bay swim route – breaking news on the podcast!
My favourite tip: strap a whistle to your wrist. It's easier for boats to hear a whistle than if you shout, and you can raise the alarm too if you're in trouble.
For questions or thoughts on this episode, leave a comment or email swimchatswithshona@gmail.com
You can contact the Wellington Harbourmaster via:
harbours@gw.govt.nz
Greater Wellington 04 384 5708
Harbour radio (urgent) 04 473 4547
Keep up to date with local goings-on via the Wellington Ocean Swimmers Facebook group (public group)
Greater Wellington Navigation Bylaws (PDF) –'Swimmers more than 200 metres from shore must tow a bright-coloured safety float or swim buoy and brightly coloured swim cap (if worn), unless accompanied by a support craft.'
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Kyota and welcome to Swim Chats,a podcast about ocean swimming.
I'm Shona Riddell, a writer, former journalist and swimmer
from Wellington, Altero, New Zealand.
For each episode, I talk to a different guest from our swim
community. Remember, if you have any
questions, thoughts or suggestions, you can e-mail me
at swimchatswithshona@gmail.com or follow me on Instagram at
(00:32):
Swim Chats. Please hit the follow or
subscribe link wherever you're listening so you don't miss an
episode. You can also leave a five star
rating and review which tells the algorithm that people are
liking it and a few know people that you think would enjoy it.
Please tell them about the podcast.
Thanks for listening. Enjoy the water.
And here's today's episode with Grant Nalda, Wellington's
(00:55):
harbour Master. So Grant, welcome to Swim Chats.
First of all, you are one of my most requested guests, I have to
say. Yeah, I think 'cause you're,
you're quite active in the Wellington Ocean Swimmers
(01:16):
Facebook group, you know, like you're at keeping us updated
and, and responding to things. And yeah, so you'll have just to
explain to listeners your harbour master for Wellington
Harbour to Fanganui Attada, which I believe according to my
Googling is 70 square kilometers.
(01:38):
Is that is that sound about? Yeah, actually it's a bit bigger
than that. Oh yeah.
So I work for the Regional Council and so I'm appointed
harbour master for the waters ofthe region.
So that starts near the MatakonaRiver north of Castle Point and
goes round to the Otaki River, or just I think slightly north
(01:59):
of the Otaki River. Oh right, OK, I didn't realize
it was that far north. I don't know how many square
kilometers that is, but it's quite a few.
It is quite a few, Yep. And so we'll start with the
basics. What?
What is a harbor master? What does a Harbor Master do?
Oh, let's start with the hard questions, Harbor Master.
Our role is mostly a regulatory oversight.
(02:26):
Our mandate is safe navigation and, and all the various form it
takes. And So what that means for me
and for my team in Wellington iswe operate Wellington Harbor
Radio, which is a link between center port who who operate the
port and the arriving shipping. They also provide information to
(02:51):
other harbor users to ships, pass on weather information,
Contact point for our office 24/7.
The navigation aids so the lighthouses inside the harbour.
We go as far down as Pink Harrowand Bat Reef Boy.
Some of the others like Bearing Head, Castle Point and and Tang
(03:13):
Point are all Maritime New Zealand.
We have a couple at Pyro and oneat Carpetee.
We look, we hold equipment for oil spill response, so that's
provided by Maritime New Zealand.
We hold on to it, look after it and exercise it.
And we also look after the, oh, the swing moorings, registration
(03:39):
and administration of those and chasing boats that go walkabout
and yeah, and recreational boating.
So our navigation and safety bylaws cover all boats on the
the region and the harbour, but it's mostly about the
recreational boats. And so signage information
(04:01):
chasing up mystery ants and, andmarker boys and the like, which
is where we and the swim rafts, of course we move those in and
out each year. So that's probably mostly where
we intersect with the swimmers. Is that that near to the shore
and, and that that sort of work?Yeah.
(04:22):
Right, Yeah. And we'll definitely talk about
the swim boys because I and the markets because I use those a
lot and I know a lot of the listeners do.
Right, but. How so?
How did you become a harbour master?
Like what's your background? OK, so traditionally harbour
masters were usually for ongoingmasters, so ship's captain and
(04:42):
then that that come ashore to a port, they've become a pilot,
which is the ones that go out onthe pilot boat to bring the ship
in. And at some point they move on
from there to be harbour master.And that's when usually they're
employed by the harbour board. And so they oversaw all the
commercial activities of the port.
(05:05):
In 1989 harbour boards were disbanded and so port companies
were created whose job was to make a profit and the regulatory
and safety role went to councilsbe that district councils or
regional councils. So and over time the change, the
job has changed like for the last previous harbour master and
(05:29):
apart from one round the countrynone of the harbour masters
actually carry out pilotage jobsanymore.
So that background has changed. So I I don't have the ocean
going background. I grew up in Nelson sailing
small boats. Sailing's my thing, it's what I
(05:50):
love, and I came over here to doa commerce degree at Victoria
University. I discovered maybe that wasn't
really my thing. I did finish the degree
eventually, but through a friend, through the spread of
adventure Trust, I got a job on the harbor ferry and got a
(06:12):
commercial qualification to drive that sort of size boat.
And I saw an advert in the paperback when you looked in the
paper for job adverts for a harbor Ranger, I went, oh, that,
that sounds interesting. So I applied for that and that
was with the previous harbor master and I looked after a lot
(06:32):
of the navigation. I did the recreational work and
things like that for about 22 years and that time did a bit of
extramural study, did a diploma in Harbor, master study from Auk
University. And yeah, when my previous boss
reply retired just over 8 years ago, I applied for the job and
(06:57):
and ended up in the hot seat as it were.
Cool what a what an interesting CVI.
Didn't know there was a diploma in harbour master but.
There was and I, I got a call from the university saying would
you like to do your masters? And I went, no, thank you, fair.
Enough. How many harbour masters are
there in New Zealand? There are, I usually quote 16, I
(07:23):
think that's about right. So that sort of 16 ports, most
have more than one. And Wellington, I've got one
DPT, some may have a couple moredepending on where they are.
Places like Waikato have quite afew.
They don't have the same big commercial shipping, but they've
(07:45):
got a lot of recreational boats and spread over a very large
area. And Canterbury, similarly, they
go from Kokora down to to Maru. So they they spread around.
So yeah, there's there's nominally 16, but there are few
more people than that in the roll, probably 40 to 50
(08:09):
throughout the country. All right, OK.
And I have a listener question from my swim friend Tim.
He wants to know what is a typical day in the job for you,
if there is such a thing as a typical day.
Yeah, typical is a challenge. First one is see if anything odd
(08:31):
has happened overnight, like make sure the nerve lights are
working. We get checklists on that, see
what's in the e-mail. So for my role being part of a
council, it's a balance between the council roles, management
meetings and planning meetings and what have you there.
And then the the harbour masterystuff.
(08:55):
I have quite a lot to do with Sendaport.
So they have the tags in the pilot boats because that's the
other question. People find out I'm a harbour
master. It's like, huh, can I go for a
ride on the tags? It's like, maybe, but they're
not mine, so you can't ask me for that.
Yeah. So I'll catch up with them.
(09:15):
We have quite a bit to do with the fairies.
It could be recreational groups you have to talk to.
Yeah, there's, there's, I guess it's one of the, it's always
been one of the attractions of the job is there's quite a
variety that they're getting out, talking to people and doing
things. Occasionally I still get out
(09:38):
with the guys onto some of the lights just because I spent so
long working on them. I get pulled in occasionally on
that, which is, which is great. I, I don't get on the water
enough, but yeah, so it's, I tend now to deal more with the
(09:59):
larger ships and the smaller boats, but I still, because I've
just been around for so long, I have quite a few contacts around
the place. So yeah, yeah, phone calls from
all sorts of people at all different times.
Right, yeah. And have has the harbour master
always had a relationship with ocean swimmers or is that a more
(10:20):
recent thing with? Kind of the.
Growth and more people doing it.Yeah, it is a, it is a more
recent thing. I mean, ocean swimming's been
building for quite a while and we've been been watching it for
quite some time. We're possible.
(10:41):
We love dealing with clubs because you go and talk to a
club and you're talking to A5060100 people and if you're
trying to get messages across ortrying to get information it's
it's much easier. So we've always had
relationships with the with the yacht clubs and the rowing clubs
and then overtime Walker Rama's come in and dragon boating and
(11:05):
swimmers of one. We've sort of seen for a while
and from what we could see it tended to be a lot of
individuals. What we didn't know at that time
was actually the groups were forming because there's some
that have been going for a while.
We got quite involved with the Ocean Swim Ceres when that first
(11:28):
started. They'd ask if we could help lay
Marks and what have you. So sort of observed a bit and
then quite some time ago was actually we started getting
involved when there are issues with swimmers and rowers in
Oriental Bay. And that just turned into a
(11:50):
major head scratcher for a while.
One of my colleagues got in touch with other Harvard Masters
office around the country, said what do you do?
We have these groups together and they all came back and said
we don't have them together. And it's like, OK, cool, we're
special. How do they separate?
How do they separate them? Like do they?
Just they just use different bits of water.
(12:12):
Right, OK. Yeah.
But Oriental Bay given, you know, while it is a big harbor,
yeah, you know, in a southerly, we're a bit, everyone's a bit
space constrained. So use the same bit of water.
Yeah, there are a lot of other places.
The swimmers will go to 1 Beach and the rowers will be somewhere
else entirely. So we're a bit special that
that's the combination. Yeah.
(12:34):
And that was so colleague at thetime, John, he knew someone with
a swim shop in Patoni. And that's where we first
discovered swim floats. And John talked to the guy there
who did some research, said, Oh yeah, we don't really sell them,
(12:55):
but you can get them. So we did a subsidy on those
from to get some in and we made-up little stickers that
went on them. And that was the first load of
swim floats and then we start seeing them on the water, which
is always cool. Yeah.
And then it was, yeah, there there were a couple of accidents
and was turned to the swimmers and working with the rowers and
(13:17):
sort of out of that, I guess started getting awareness of the
groups were they were there. We had a bit to do with Philip
as well. And so met him and he talked
about Barb and other groups and.That's Philip Rush.
Philip Rush. Yeah, Yeah, he.
Was he was my last guest. All right, yeah, well, I mean,
(13:40):
we know he's been doing this game for a while.
Yes. And so, yeah, we sort of started
getting there and. And one of the, for all the
problems with social media, one of the great things is actually
in the sort of role like I find that ocean swimmers group really
helpful and an easy way to communicate with a lot of
(14:02):
people. So that's sort of that's where
it developed over time. And I think generally I think
we're in a reasonably good spot at the moment.
You know, the communication flows and it's it's always one
of those things where if we don't know there's a problem, we
won't try and fix it. So it's that communicate and,
(14:27):
you know, likewise. So yeah, that's it is a.
Really good. It is a really good portal in
there, isn't it? For people ask questions and
advice and people who are new toit and people finding groups.
And you mentioned toe floats before.
So let's let's just talk about them because it would be good,
(14:49):
might be good for listeners to know what the recommendations
are around toe floats as to whenthey should be putting one on.
OK, so there's actually strongerthan that.
There is a rule around Toast. Sorry.
That's a bylaw, so yeah, anyway.But in the last bylaw review,
which was four years ago now, we'd put something in that.
(15:14):
And actually, it's not just swimmers, it applies to free
divers and scuba divers as well.That anyone intending to be more
than 200 meters from shore should have a float or divers.
That means if they're not divingfrom a boat, because if they're
diving from a boat, they have a flag up that indicates where
(15:35):
they are. But in some places you'll get
shore divers will go out quite awhile right away.
And despite trying to inform to the country, people on boats
don't always expect to find a person in the water that far
from shore, right? And that's, that's the risk.
I mean, that's there's an onus on the boat to keep a lookout.
(15:58):
But he does a really small thing, you know, for the boaties
that especially the yachties, you do man overboard exercises
occasionally and you throw something sort of head sized in
the water and wow, it disappearsfast.
And that's something you're trying to see.
So if you don't know what's there, it's a bit scary.
(16:20):
So yeah. Yeah, so, so outside 200 meters
tow float. So that's things like, you know,
if you wanted to cross Evans Baywhere we we have people get in
touch. So we want to do a swim from sea
tune to Oriental, I think. And the usual advice on that is,
(16:41):
you know, maybe get a couple of kayaks and and please cross
evens band groups, because the other thing is a group is great
for visibility rather than individual.
So, yeah. So outside 200 meters, they need
to be there inside of that. I mean, I, I think they're a
(17:02):
great thing. They provide visibility, they
provide flotation. If you want to stop for a
breather, you've got something to grab.
And the one that really scares me is if you're going to go out
on the dark, you can put a torchin there.
Yes. Cuz yeah, yeah.
Swimming at night that just yeah, I I can see the appeal,
(17:25):
but it yeah, from a risk point of view.
There was health and safety, yeah.
Yeah, that one just scares me and.
Especially at this time of year because we've got the shorter
days and a lot of people swimming in the morning.
Yep, Yep, Yep. So.
And that's great. I've you know, last winter, one
morning as I was going around the bays early and there were
(17:45):
all these little lights just bubbling around in the.
Oh, that's beautiful, aren't they?
They're like, yeah, it's cool, Yeah.
Yep, Yep. So you know, a group of two or
three of those and you become really visible.
So. Are there are there rules or
regular or yeah, rules around the the size of the toeflow or
the shape of the toeflow? No.
No, it's just. I should know this, but I think
(18:08):
it's is a a brightly colored float.
Right. So, you know, black or dark blue
or dark green wouldn't be a flesh idea, but they tend to
come on sort of orange and yellows and everything like that
and. Yeah.
That's right, with a glow strokeor torch or something in them,
they're great. Yeah, it makes a big difference.
I'm not. I'm not a huge night swimmer,
(18:29):
but I have, I have done sort of dawn swims where you put one in
and yeah, the visibility is pretty incredible.
Yeah. Yeah.
So our Wellington ocean swimmingcommunity, you mentioned that
you've been Harbour Master for about 8 years, Is that right?
And so from what I've seen, and I've only been ocean swimming
(18:50):
for about four years, I think, but it looks like since the
pandemic with pool closures and things and people getting out
more and doing more outside activities, that it's grown a
lot in terms of the number of people getting in the water.
Yeah, I, I, I think the numbers have grown.
You know, when when the lighthouse swim started that the
(19:13):
organized event remazed at the number of people.
And then if you're going to do that for a competition, you'd
got to train it as well. And it's just more and more
numbers and also in different places as well.
I mean, it seems to be focused around our rental, but hi Tai,
Tai Beach and Lowry Bay and and a few other spots as well.
(19:38):
And yeah, that's right. And I was going to say we have
quite a big sort of marathon swim community here as well,
people who swim the cook straight and beyond and people
who swim in all weather. So you would say that, you know,
obviously people swim over winter, as they are doing right
now, but also in, you know, heavy rain, strong winds,
(19:58):
there's not much that deters some of the more hardcore
swimmers. I mean, from where you're
sitting, the swimmers, A swimmers getting sort of more
daring with their swims or are they becoming more safety
cautious or a bit of both? Probably a bit of both.
Yeah, one of the recent Cook Straight swimmers actually also
(20:20):
works at the council. All right.
His name has just escaped me, but yeah, he did that one
recently. I think they're going more
places like her in like the samebefore orange or Bay pretty
common, but now go around the corner to Ballina Bay and yeah,
(20:41):
they I had someone was talking about a training swim to Sims
because of course The Sims Patoni swim has been going for a
very long time. But yeah, other people doing
that outside that time. And I guess that's one of the
(21:02):
reasons too with the tow floats is you're starting to find
swimmers and places you don't normally.
I think Island Bay, there are a few as well.
And you know, a lot of our education material, because most
of ours is aimed at at boats or rowing or, or pedal boards or
(21:26):
what have you, you know, lookingout for swimmers is, is a
becoming a pretty standard thingon those.
So yeah, I think they're gettingmore adventurous.
I've seen overseas where they have multi sport events where
you check your shoes and your toe float, you swim apart, then
(21:47):
you put them on and run over something and then swim some
more. And yeah, good, good for them.
Yeah, yeah, they, yeah, they do seem to be growing in
popularity, don't they? Yeah.
Let's talk about the swim boys. And you mentioned those before,
how in Oriental Bay we have boys.
(22:07):
Are the boys just for swimmers to clarify, feel like they are,
but are they also? So which ones are you talking
about? We're teasing.
Now, yeah, good question. So we've got well I'm in Bob's
group and we call them the firstboy, second boy, third boy,
turning boy, Plus there are the 2 new white boys.
That were put in the summer. Yep, Yep.
(22:29):
So OK, so yeah, we call them thefive knot boys.
That's the yellow 5 knot boys because that's where you've got
to slow down to five knots, which is about it's it's a
walking pace out of nine kilometers an hour.
So they, they've been around fora long time and that's the the
(22:49):
indication for boaties. If they're heading towards the
beach, what have you, that's that's where they need to slow
down or if they're going out, that's where they can speed up.
So I've been out there as long as I've been with the council.
So yeah, quite a stretch. And mostly we've never actually
(23:11):
lit them because it's generally your recreational boating is
mainly A daytime activity. So the the ones in Oriental Bay
that have the lights on them, that was Maria and Karen who
also work at the council. We seem to have quite a few
(23:32):
oceans from the set our. Council infiltration going on.
Yes. And they said, oh, it'd be
really nice to see the boys. And with the advent of LEDs and
what have you, we've, we had some small boys that small
lights are reasonably easy to attach.
And so we put them on there. They asked the boys, how are we
(23:56):
the turning marker the, the, thebig one.
So that came about when we're going through the issue of
looking at rowers and swimmers. And one of the conflicted areas
was the lighthouse, because everyone aims for the lighthouse
because it's really big and easyto see.
(24:16):
Yeah. And so the thought was that was
we made it as close as we can 1 kilometer from Freiburg Beach
because we figure people that are training like numbers and
like distances. Yeah.
I know I, I, I'm always doing numbers in the head just so we
(24:39):
made it 1K the and it is almost,but not quite the lighthouse.
But it also just gives another alternative that's a bit further
away from the rowers. So the rowers as a matter of
course now are outside the boys.If the inside the agreement is
(25:01):
that they're not going at pace, they might be doing adjustments,
they might be doing something else.
And there's actually a coach boat that's providing lookout.
I think generally that's going pretty well.
And I'm sure I'm going to, there's going to be some
comments at it if it's not. But I, I, I know recently there
(25:23):
was an issue and I followed it up with the Roman clubs and they
went, yeah, no, they shouldn't have been in there.
And we're talking to the coachesabout it.
So they, they are trying to manage their responsibility as
well. So sorry.
That so, so that big turning boythat says swimming boy, swimming
Mark. That one was just put in
(25:44):
specifically for the swimmers. And then the white ones, the two
new white ones that came from last winter and August.
I think there was a bit of a sudden temperature drop, which
is a bit unusual. The harbor dropped about 2 1/2
(26:06):
three degrees over a couple of days.
And a couple of the winter swimmers got a bit caught out of
that and got oh, wow. I think at least one there's an
ambulance called because they got hypothermic and who was it?
Brie organized a bit of a bit ofa Hoey after that to get people
(26:28):
together and have a talk about it.
And somehow that the the inner boys came out of that and
because one of the suggestions and we went along think we did
the BBQ and I did speak, but reality was really to listen, to
(26:52):
hear what everyone else had to say.
Yeah. And one of the suggestions that
came out of that for winter swimmers was maybe you don't
have to go the whole way to either the lighthouse or the
turning boy. And what if there was something
else that they could do shorter laps of and and the rationale
(27:14):
behind that being if you actually found you were getting
really cold, you weren't as far from the beach to get out.
Yeah, you're not caught out a long distance from shore.
Yeah, yeah. And so came back to, well, OK,
what if we had some sort of roughly equidistant boys going
directly to the swim mark to be an alternative.
(27:37):
And from my point of view, looking at sort of the whole
raft of users there, I quite like it because the yellow boys
that traditionally were getting used, that's sort of the edge of
that. That's where the boats change
speed. So it's sort of like a footpath
(28:00):
on the edge of the motorway. In theory, it's where the cars
are stopping or slowing down, but it's really close.
Yeah. And so suddenly these white boys
are actually a good distance in.So if there's a boat coming in
that's not paying as good attention as they should, and
they slow down as they go past the boy, it still means that by
(28:23):
the time they get into their dinner line that they're where
they should be. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, it's, it's not excusing the behavior, but it's sort of
like the concept that a painted cycle line protects cyclists
from cars. It's yeah, it's a nice idea if
everyone does things exactly right.
Yeah, but sometimes you need to be pragmatic as well, right?
(28:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, yeah, I got a range of
feedback on that and decided, well, actually we'll throw a
couple out there and see what people think.
Yeah. And the feedback's been pretty
good. And actually, I can let you know
because I don't think this one'sbeen announced anywhere.
(29:07):
We have ordered some permanent boys because they are some old
marker boys that we just paintedwhite and they are going to be
bright pink. Oh, great.
Breaking news on the podcast. Breaking news on your podcast?
Yep, the 2 white boys will be turning into bright pink boys.
And they will be slightly tallerin the water, a little bit
(29:29):
fatter and a bit taller it's. Great to know, yeah.
Yeah. Pick will help with that our,
you know, aiming towards them definitely.
Yeah, yeah, that is, yeah. There's a lot of discussion
around colors and someone again in the Facebook group, yeah, put
in, there's a study done on bestcolor visibility of togs that
(29:53):
was actually comparing fresh water to salt water.
But actually pink and orange with a beta twos.
Yeah. Orange is probably a bit close
to our yellow boys. Yeah.
And we don't want them to look like that because we don't want
bodies to think that's where I slow down.
Yes. So we wanted something different
(30:14):
from the yellow. Yeah.
Yeah. Red and green are out because
they have other meanings. So.
Yeah. So we will put them and see what
they are. There's a lot of discussion
about lights as well about therewill be lights on the new one
still working on the color. So you can't get pink lights.
(30:37):
So that's not gonna happen. But we'll we'll see what we can
do on lights. I don't want them all yellow
because that's just gonna be confusing as all heat.
So yeah. Yeah, if any listeners have
thoughts or opinions on what color the lights should be,
maybe they can leave a comment. Yeah, yeah.
That's, that's AI need to talk to Maritime New Zealand to find
(30:59):
out what we're allowed to put onthere.
But yeah. Yeah, that's.
The rules and guidelines, but. You don't want too much disco
flashing, probably. Yeah, yeah, we don't.
So anyway. So.
Oh. That's awesome.
Well, thanks for that. They've been ordered and they
will happen at some stage. So yeah.
And I, I, I like the fact that it sort of came from an idea
(31:21):
from the swimmers. I know not everyone.
There are a few that thought it'd be a bit cluttered, but I I
think it's generally worked out OK.
Yeah, I. Mean when you're, when you're
swimming, they don't feel more, at least from in my opinion,
they don't feel cluttered and it's great.
That provides a bit more varietyas well in terms of where we're
going to swim and towards which boy as well, you know.
(31:43):
Yeah. And if these are a bit bigger
and the other thing coming back to the the cold water incident
last year is it gives people theoptions.
Rather than going right to the turning boy, they could just do
a few laps between the two, the 2 white boys in the middle and
come back so they're still not that far from from shore.
(32:06):
But forget the swimming. Yeah.
And when before you, when you were talking about boaties and
you know, sometimes they go a bit faster than they should or
they don't see a swimmer. It's the most helpful thing from
a boaties perspective that obviously a swimmer has a tow
float, but also that people swimin groups to help with
visibility. From my point of view, yeah,
(32:27):
from just being out on the water, one of the things that
amazed me the first time I went out or the the ocean swim, the
lighthouse swim, was actually the noise.
The amount of noise 300 swimmersmake is just just the arms in
and out of the water. The tuning.
The tuning, yeah, obviously I'm not suggesting you go out in
(32:50):
groups of 300, but yeah, no, I, I think for visibility it's
really good. And when people ask about doing
longer swims or open water swims, that's why I'm quite a
fan of a kayak or something likethat, because it's, you know,
one kayak is about the size of three or four swimmers on the
(33:12):
water. So it's it's just being visible
because it's really hard for people to avoid something they
can't see or they don't notice. Yes, yeah, one thing we we've
talked quite a bit about the ocean swimmers as in people who
are swimming offshore more than 200 meters.
There are also a lot of dipping groups in Wellington and Dippers
(33:34):
as in people who get in the water like on a daily basis all
year round, but they're not going sort of past past their
heads more getting in for like does that.
Is that part of your sort of jurisdiction as well?
Like, are there safety issues around that or is it more really
just the people swimming offshore?
I believe the distance because it's, it's an interesting one.
(33:57):
And if you read through our legislation and rules and what
have you, most of our work concentrates around vessels of
some type or another. And that could be a stand up
pedal board, it could be an inter island ferry and
everything in between. And so swimmers are interesting
(34:18):
because they are water users, but they don't sort of fit under
our rules because you don't havea, you're not on or in a thing,
you're just in the water. So from my point of view that
it's the interaction because actually no matter what the
(34:39):
scale where we have issues as interaction at your scale that
could be between the rowers and the swimmers, between the
ferries and yachts, same thing. They're both fine on their own,
but put them both in the same place and people get upset.
So yeah, so the, the the dippers, they're in close to
(35:03):
shore, they're not going to be mixing with with other water
activities. So don't really have that same
connection there. That's it's the distance and the
location I guess with the ocean swimmers is is where we connect
there. You mentioned earlier the
platforms that are just offshore.
(35:24):
So there's one Freiburg Beach, which is I think about 80 metres
offshore and there's one in Oriental Bay.
They're variously, they're called platforms, pontoons or
rafts. I don't know if one name is more
correct than another. It's.
Yeah. They were they, they're out
there. I, I was, I was going to say,
you know, they're a recreationalthing there for people to jump
(35:46):
off or to swim out to. Is that?
Yeah, yeah, swim out to. I like to.
Sit on jump. Off yeah, some label on.
I like how on Google Maps someone pointed out that they're
labeled the party pontoons. Yeah, yeah, they're very
popular. It's.
There's a Christmas tree that goes on on.
(36:07):
Sometimes, yeah, you know, we don't do Christmas trees, but I
have seen that happen. Yeah, that's a swimmer.
A swimmer LED initiative I think.
Yes. So I think there's a plaque
somewhere on the wall at our rental.
Yeah, they were. If I've got this right, they're
originally called the Iliot Rafts, I think is also one of
(36:30):
the buildings at Victoria University, but it was Oriental
Bay. Residents had contributed
towards putting them out there and the harbour board used to
look after them. So we're going back a long time
here. And then after that, the, the
(36:56):
spending of that sort of by default, Regional Council picked
them up and we'd take them over to Singapore and lift them out
on the to, to dry out each year.And then earthquakes came along
and took out the land that they used to sit on and made that
difficult. And actually it's a bit odd
(37:19):
because Regional Council, we don't tend to provide things
like that was a was a probably ahistoric thing that we were
looking after them. So we've actually that they're
now handed back to Wellington City Council, who they maintain
a look after them with still with some input from the
(37:41):
residents association because they helped to rebuild a number
of years ago. And so we assist by telling them
to and from Evans Bay each year and and hooking them up and
taking them back. And yeah.
Were they out? Were they there a bit longer
this year or am I imagining that?
They were. It varies a bit.
(38:04):
There's more pressure to keep them there longer.
I longer term, I think that's a problem.
I think they need to come out probably around May and don't be
too much of A rush to put them in because they are quite wet
when they come out of the water and a few months drying out
doesn't do them any harm. But sort of around Labor Day
(38:26):
ish, maybe we'll, we'll see. It's always, you know, we get
that nice bit of weather and everyone thinks we'll all go
down to the beach and then we get 3 or 4 weeks of rubbish
following that's. Yeah, that's right.
Typical Wellington. Yeah, yeah, so many, many years
ago. Oh, let's see, almost someone
(38:48):
was born probably pushing 18 oddyears ago.
I'd been down at the gym and Freiburg 1 morning and as
they're waiting for someone and their two swimmers are coming
out of the shower and that's it.So it said something about we,
we just removed the rafts. Someone took the rafts away and
(39:11):
went oh, that might have been me.
And she's like, what did you do there before we toy our
thermometer to. Ah, it was, but there's always a
float there so we could find themooring.
And yes, if people wish to hook a thermometer up to that, but
yeah. Yeah, interesting.
People have their own ways of measuring the water and their
(39:33):
own systems don't know that theylike to have.
And another sort of water feature we have is the Carter
fountain. So it's the water fountain.
Only recently learned how rare it is to have a salt water
fountain. I don't think there are many in
the world. Yeah.
And the history, I believe, is that there was a Mr. Carter, a
(39:56):
businessman, who funded the fountain and then sadly drowned
just only days after it was. Oh, my goodness.
Yeah. Yeah.
So it's a bit of a sort of a sadstory behind it that is from a
swimmer's perspective, you know,it's quite special to be
swimming around it when it comeson and the it's swimming.
(40:18):
Are there set times that it thatit depends on and off?
Do you know? I don't know about times I know.
So again, that's that's Wellington City.
Look after that one. I believe there's wind
instruments on top of the band Rotunda and so if it's a strong
northerly, it doesn't come on because the saltwater spray gets
(40:41):
blown over oriental. So it's it's about direction and
speed. OK, I don't know that.
I guess there must be a timer aswell, because there are lots of
days it could be going. It isn't.
So yeah, yeah, there must be a timer too, yeah?
I'll ask the Council. Yeah, yeah, that's, that's wrong
Council, Sorry you're. Right.
I was going to ask about marine life in the harbour because
(41:04):
obviously we have some marine life that is a regular feature
like seals in the sort of aroundthis time of year, you know in
the in certain months we have orcas.
Occasionally we get a leopard seal that swims up from
Antarctica or a southern right whale.
Is that part of your jurisdiction or is that more a
(41:25):
dock department of conservation?No, that's, that's more a dock
thing. And it's, it's an interesting
one. There was a photo couple of
years ago of some baby sharks inOriental people standing in the
(41:45):
water with the sharks around their feet.
And these things will maybe 30 or 40 centimeters long.
So they were the tiny little ones.
And because it's sandy, you'll get, you'll get rays in there as
well. And yeah, no, that's just they,
(42:06):
they do what they do. The whale number of years ago,
we got a little bit involved in that on two things.
There's a bit of a shady fit between ourselves and police and
a little bit of dock. I've actually just making sure
(42:28):
people kept at a bit of distance.
But the other complication with that is the whale would have its
followers of kayakers and paddleboarders and small boats.
And then you get a ship coming through.
So the whale sort of flicks its tail and disappears out the road
and leaves all these other boatsin the road.
(42:50):
So yeah, the, the that's very cool to see the whales in the
harbor and they do what they do,but it's it's just really
sometimes managing the people around them because it's more
more of the challenge. I was thinking about that
because when a southern right whale comes in, it's I guess it
only seems to happen every sort of seven years or so from.
(43:13):
Yeah, it's not too often. No, but the city almost comes to
a standstill. Yeah, people want to see it and
it's. Oh, absolutely.
And orca, it's amazing. We see the orca in there.
There's a video of 1 surfaced inChafer's Marina.
So the front of the Marina is a floating breakwater.
(43:35):
It's not solid. So obviously it had come
underneath there and it was justswimming down the rows between
the boats. And it's like, wow, that's
interesting. Yeah, they're huge and they come
so close and shore, don't they? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And they like they're, they're quite a fan of seals of
Stingrays, yes. So, yeah, yeah, yes.
(43:59):
Yeah. Liquid suits maybe not so good
that week. Right.
Yeah, that's right. Last year you had a fairly
dramatic day when a swimmer entered the shipping channel.
They were someone who wasn't a Wellingtonian, I believe.
I don't know. I don't know the exact details,
but they swam in front of the was it the Blue Bridge Ferry?
(44:22):
Yes. And so the ferry had to stop and
be notified that there was a swimmer, and then the swimmer
had to be sort of escorted. That yeah, yeah, yeah.
Does that sort? Of thing happen very often.
Thankfully, no. Yeah, right.
No. Yeah, relatively new to
Wellington. I now know the person.
(44:45):
I mean, I'm, I'm laughing about it, but I shouldn't laugh
because obviously I'm only laughing because there was a
happy ending and that right nobody was hurt.
Yeah, I mean, I must admit, it'slike, oh, somebody got on the
way of the fairy is like, you'vegot to be kidding.
How does that happen? But yeah, that's sort of gone
from Queen's Wharf and saw the fountain and not the fountain,
(45:06):
saw the lighthouse and off they went.
And yeah, so they understand a bit more about ferry timetables
and and where you swim. And shipping channels.
And so how, how did you hear about it?
Did you hear about it from the the ferry or?
From, from the ferry, Yeah. And I think from memory, the
(45:27):
police might have gone out and and had a chat just because they
were handy on the water. But, yeah, and they're a
competent swimmer, but just sortof, you know, Queen's Wharf,
there's a lighthouse. Off we go.
They weren't right in front of it, but they were close enough
to cause some angst at the fairymaster because I mean, yeah, you
(45:52):
you think small boats are bad, Fairy versus a swimmer.
That's that's fairy's not actually going to notice.
No, Yeah, it doesn't get thinking about, does it?
No, the moral of the the moral of the story is to talk to local
swimmers before you go out. Talk to the locals, know your
areas, know where the risk points are.
Yeah, yeah, swimming from town outwards is, is interesting
(46:17):
because you've got the Marina entrance there as well and it's
not always an area that OTS are going to expect to see swimmers.
So yeah, that's, that's a bit ofAI know there's groups that go
between Queen's Wharf and down by the Hicketeer and backwards
(46:39):
and forwards there and that's that, that's cool.
But yeah, just the things like Marina entrances I'm I'm always
wary of because especially you've got boats going in and
out of there that they're eitherthey've just come out and
they're getting things sorted orthey're getting ropes and
fenders outgoing in. And yeah, that that's, that's
(47:03):
where being in a group and floats and things like that are
really good. The other one that's picked up
from us from a couple of years back was they have a whistle on
a, on a little wristband just tucked into their wetsuit.
And if they think about it's getting a bit close, they'll
(47:24):
just get on that, which is greatbecause your voice doesn't carry
particularly well, but a shrill little whistle is really
annoying. And it does.
And I, I think that's a, that's a great idea as well.
I've got one in my toeflat. I think somebody suggested that.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. But having on the wrist is
(47:45):
probably a better idea because it's a lot more accessible in a
hurry, right? Yeah, they just had one of those
like curly little wristband things.
So it's got a bit of stretch nut, but even if it is short on
your wrist, you can get your hand close to your mouth and
just give a couple of glass there just to wake up whoever it
is. Yeah, and and also you get a
(48:06):
cramp, you get into difficulty, something like that.
It's it's a great way of gettingattention.
Yeah, it's a really good safety tip.
You mentioned earlier that you're a keen sailor if you're a
swimmer. At various times I do have a toe
float IA number of years ago quite regularly used to do all
(48:31):
lengths. I don't think the fitness is
there at the moment. Actually, no, it's not not
really. I don't I don't do the distance
in the sea as a family. We try and get down to the
sounds over summer and, you know, jumping off the boat and
(48:54):
swimming around there is is definitely, I love that.
I'm I'm quite happy in the water.
But yeah, I don't think the the fitness is quite up to stretch
for that one at the moment. Yeah, fair enough.
And it's it's not necessarily the best time of year to be
swimming in the ocean, although a lot of people are still doing
it in the winter. I know you're on the.
You've probably heard of the Iceswimming championships that are
(49:17):
happening down South and a lot of Wellington swimmers take
part. Well, I, I shouldn't say a lot.
Some, some Wellington will take part in that.
And I know that they use the harbour in the winter to train
to, you know, build up their I can.
Understand that entirely. Yeah.
You know, that's that's that's that's impressive.
(49:37):
Yeah. And the ones that swim in winter
without a wet suit. Wow.
I'm just. Yeah, wow.
Yeah. That's impressive.
Yeah, I I agree. I usually wear a wet suit for
swims in the harbour, so yeah, Iagree, it's impressive.
I have another question from listener Tim.
Is there anything that we as ocean swimmers can do to make
(49:59):
your job easier apart from wearing a toe flirt?
No, I think I I I can't get pastvisibility being visible.
Yeah, bright colours. Bright colors, groups, toe
floats, whistle, any of that stuff.
(50:23):
And I guess if you want to do something different and go
somewhere new, have a look who else is using the area?
Do you need some floating support or And that's probably 1
to talk to us. You know, we've had people that
(50:45):
say I want to do a swim from here to there.
If it's a large event, definitely talk to us.
But if it's just a small one might say, well, actually that's
not so good because of this. Have you thought about changing
it to there? It's not about not trying new
(51:06):
things because there's a big harbor and there are lots of
places, but it's, it's again, it's just thinking about that
possible interaction and, and how you can make that safe and,
and minimize the risk of that. Yeah.
So, yeah, I mean, I think you know, the dealings in the last
(51:28):
few years, you've got a really proactive swimming community and
and quite safety conscious. So yeah, that's great.
You mentioned Bri earlier, Brianna Ward, who also had her
own episode on this podcast. Yep.
You did the Hoey with and the safety session.
Would you conduct more of those or is that more LED?
(51:50):
Led by her? That one was led by her.
We're happy to be part of them. What we've found in all sorts of
areas, not just the swimmers, isthat when we tried to spark that
stuff off, it's not usually thatexciting and people aren't that
fussed about it. However, it's it's when we're in
(52:16):
an activity group or group of people that are interested in
something, we're more than happyto come along and be part of
that. Yeah, as it's just the thing,
you know, rules and regulations are boring.
No one's really that excited about them, but.
Until they need them though, right?
Until they need them. Yeah.
(52:38):
So, yeah, we, I mean, yeah, thatthat's, that's great to do
things like that. And, you know, love to be
invited along. And if we can, you know, to and,
and if we can contribute, that'sit.
You know, there's got to be somebenefit both for you and for us,
(53:01):
for us to be there. Yeah.
And and and more than happy to to do that, yeah.
Well, that's good to know. And so if someone is planning on
doing a, a, a longer swim or organizing a swim somewhere
that's a little bit more unusualthan Oriental Bay, what's the
best way to get in touch with you?
(53:23):
How do people normally make contact?
We have probably or e-mail is aneasy 1 harbours at gw.gov T I'll
send that through. You can ring us on the the
council number 3845708. I'll pass on those contacts and
(53:50):
yeah, you've get put through to someone on the team and yeah,
we're we're not too hard to find.
Cool. That's good to know.
And is there anything else you'dlike to mention or talk about
that I haven't already asked youabout before we wind up?
No, I think that's, that's pretty good.
(54:10):
I, I guess just what I was saying, I think there's really
good open water community seems to be really supportive.
You know, there's some good workgoing on on the safety focus
with Brie and others. And you know, for us, being able
to deal with groups is so easy, you know, to try and find every
(54:35):
swimmer to talk to is just not going to happen.
But being able to share information and I guess for you
all to have somewhere you can share back through, actually
that's the other one for contactis even through the Facebook
group, I've had a few people on Messenger have just flicked me a
(54:56):
message. That's not always the most
reliable, but I will pick it up at some stage.
But yeah. Yeah, cool.
Yeah, yeah. And actually the other number
I'll put through to you is if there's anything that's going
bad that needs urgent WellingtonHarbor Radio, they're our 24/7
(55:18):
contact. So if you get hold of them,
they'll they'll get someone in touch with you or, or do
something like that. Yeah.
OK, cool. And I'll put all these details
in the show nights of the episode as well so people can.
That'll be awesome. Yeah, cool.
Well, thank you, Grant. First of all, thank you for your
time, but also for looking afterthe the harbor and allowing us
(55:39):
to keep doing what we enjoy doing and.
Oh no, it's cool. I mean, it's, it's a big harbor
and there are lots of users and just, you know, got to make it
work for everyone. And thank you for the pink, pink
swim boys that are coming. Looking forward to those.
Yeah, I, I don't know when, but they have it all right, so.
I won't hold you to a date, but just to know they're coming is
still coming. Thanks for listening to this
(56:02):
episode of Swim Chats. Please remember to follow or
subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode.
And if you enjoyed it, you can leave a five star rating and
review which helps other people find it too.
Enjoy the water and we'll see you next time.
Kyota and welcome to Swim Chats,a podcast about ocean swimming.
I'm Shona Riddell, a writer, former journalist and swimmer
from Wellington, Altero, New Zealand.
For each episode, I talk to a different guest from our swim
community. Remember, if you have any
questions, thoughts or suggestions, you can e-mail me
at swimchatswithshona@gmail.com or follow me on Instagram at
(00:32):
Swim Chats. Please hit the follow or
subscribe link wherever you're listening so you don't miss an
episode. You can also leave a five star
rating and review which tells the algorithm that people are
liking it and a few know people that you think would enjoy it.
Please tell them about the podcast.
Thanks for listening. Enjoy the water.
And here's today's episode with Grant Nalda, Wellington's
(00:55):
harbour Master. So Grant, welcome to Swim Chats.
First of all, you are one of my most requested guests, I have to
say. Yeah, I think 'cause you're,
you're quite active in the Wellington Ocean Swimmers
(01:16):
Facebook group, you know, like you're at keeping us updated
and, and responding to things. And yeah, so you'll have just to
explain to listeners your harbour master for Wellington
Harbour to Fanganui Attada, which I believe according to my
Googling is 70 square kilometers.
(01:38):
Is that is that sound about? Yeah, actually it's a bit bigger
than that. Oh yeah.
So I work for the Regional Council and so I'm appointed
harbour master for the waters ofthe region.
So that starts near the MatakonaRiver north of Castle Point and
goes round to the Otaki River, or just I think slightly north
(01:59):
of the Otaki River. Oh right, OK, I didn't realize
it was that far north. I don't know how many square
kilometers that is, but it's quite a few.
It is quite a few, Yep. And so we'll start with the
basics. What?
What is a harbor master? What does a Harbor Master do?
Oh, let's start with the hard questions, Harbor Master.
Our role is mostly a regulatory oversight.
(02:26):
Our mandate is safe navigation and, and all the various form it
takes. And So what that means for me
and for my team in Wellington iswe operate Wellington Harbor
Radio, which is a link between center port who who operate the
port and the arriving shipping. They also provide information to
(02:51):
other harbor users to ships, pass on weather information,
Contact point for our office 24/7.
The navigation aids so the lighthouses inside the harbour.
We go as far down as Pink Harrowand Bat Reef Boy.
Some of the others like Bearing Head, Castle Point and and Tang
(03:13):
Point are all Maritime New Zealand.
We have a couple at Pyro and oneat Carpetee.
We look, we hold equipment for oil spill response, so that's
provided by Maritime New Zealand.
We hold on to it, look after it and exercise it.
And we also look after the, oh, the swing moorings, registration
(03:39):
and administration of those and chasing boats that go walkabout
and yeah, and recreational boating.
So our navigation and safety bylaws cover all boats on the
the region and the harbour, but it's mostly about the
recreational boats. And so signage information
(04:01):
chasing up mystery ants and, andmarker boys and the like, which
is where we and the swim rafts, of course we move those in and
out each year. So that's probably mostly where
we intersect with the swimmers. Is that that near to the shore
and, and that that sort of work?Yeah.
(04:22):
Right, Yeah. And we'll definitely talk about
the swim boys because I and the markets because I use those a
lot and I know a lot of the listeners do.
Right, but. How so?
How did you become a harbour master?
Like what's your background? OK, so traditionally harbour
masters were usually for ongoingmasters, so ship's captain and
(04:42):
then that that come ashore to a port, they've become a pilot,
which is the ones that go out onthe pilot boat to bring the ship
in. And at some point they move on
from there to be harbour master.And that's when usually they're
employed by the harbour board. And so they oversaw all the
commercial activities of the port.
(05:05):
In 1989 harbour boards were disbanded and so port companies
were created whose job was to make a profit and the regulatory
and safety role went to councilsbe that district councils or
regional councils. So and over time the change, the
job has changed like for the last previous harbour master and
(05:29):
apart from one round the countrynone of the harbour masters
actually carry out pilotage jobsanymore.
So that background has changed. So I I don't have the ocean
going background. I grew up in Nelson sailing
small boats. Sailing's my thing, it's what I
(05:50):
love, and I came over here to doa commerce degree at Victoria
University. I discovered maybe that wasn't
really my thing. I did finish the degree
eventually, but through a friend, through the spread of
adventure Trust, I got a job on the harbor ferry and got a
(06:12):
commercial qualification to drive that sort of size boat.
And I saw an advert in the paperback when you looked in the
paper for job adverts for a harbor Ranger, I went, oh, that,
that sounds interesting. So I applied for that and that
was with the previous harbor master and I looked after a lot
(06:32):
of the navigation. I did the recreational work and
things like that for about 22 years and that time did a bit of
extramural study, did a diploma in Harbor, master study from Auk
University. And yeah, when my previous boss
reply retired just over 8 years ago, I applied for the job and
(06:57):
and ended up in the hot seat as it were.
Cool what a what an interesting CVI.
Didn't know there was a diploma in harbour master but.
There was and I, I got a call from the university saying would
you like to do your masters? And I went, no, thank you, fair.
Enough. How many harbour masters are
there in New Zealand? There are, I usually quote 16, I
(07:23):
think that's about right. So that sort of 16 ports, most
have more than one. And Wellington, I've got one
DPT, some may have a couple moredepending on where they are.
Places like Waikato have quite afew.
They don't have the same big commercial shipping, but they've
(07:45):
got a lot of recreational boats and spread over a very large
area. And Canterbury, similarly, they
go from Kokora down to to Maru. So they they spread around.
So yeah, there's there's nominally 16, but there are few
more people than that in the roll, probably 40 to 50
(08:09):
throughout the country. All right, OK.
And I have a listener question from my swim friend Tim.
He wants to know what is a typical day in the job for you,
if there is such a thing as a typical day.
Yeah, typical is a challenge. First one is see if anything odd
(08:31):
has happened overnight, like make sure the nerve lights are
working. We get checklists on that, see
what's in the e-mail. So for my role being part of a
council, it's a balance between the council roles, management
meetings and planning meetings and what have you there.
And then the the harbour masterystuff.
(08:55):
I have quite a lot to do with Sendaport.
So they have the tags in the pilot boats because that's the
other question. People find out I'm a harbour
master. It's like, huh, can I go for a
ride on the tags? It's like, maybe, but they're
not mine, so you can't ask me for that.
Yeah. So I'll catch up with them.
(09:15):
We have quite a bit to do with the fairies.
It could be recreational groups you have to talk to.
Yeah, there's, there's, I guess it's one of the, it's always
been one of the attractions of the job is there's quite a
variety that they're getting out, talking to people and doing
things. Occasionally I still get out
(09:38):
with the guys onto some of the lights just because I spent so
long working on them. I get pulled in occasionally on
that, which is, which is great. I, I don't get on the water
enough, but yeah, so it's, I tend now to deal more with the
(09:59):
larger ships and the smaller boats, but I still, because I've
just been around for so long, I have quite a few contacts around
the place. So yeah, yeah, phone calls from
all sorts of people at all different times.
Right, yeah. And have has the harbour master
always had a relationship with ocean swimmers or is that a more
(10:20):
recent thing with? Kind of the.
Growth and more people doing it.Yeah, it is a, it is a more
recent thing. I mean, ocean swimming's been
building for quite a while and we've been been watching it for
quite some time. We're possible.
(10:41):
We love dealing with clubs because you go and talk to a
club and you're talking to A5060100 people and if you're
trying to get messages across ortrying to get information it's
it's much easier. So we've always had
relationships with the with the yacht clubs and the rowing clubs
and then overtime Walker Rama's come in and dragon boating and
(11:05):
swimmers of one. We've sort of seen for a while
and from what we could see it tended to be a lot of
individuals. What we didn't know at that time
was actually the groups were forming because there's some
that have been going for a while.
We got quite involved with the Ocean Swim Ceres when that first
(11:28):
started. They'd ask if we could help lay
Marks and what have you. So sort of observed a bit and
then quite some time ago was actually we started getting
involved when there are issues with swimmers and rowers in
Oriental Bay. And that just turned into a
(11:50):
major head scratcher for a while.
One of my colleagues got in touch with other Harvard Masters
office around the country, said what do you do?
We have these groups together and they all came back and said
we don't have them together. And it's like, OK, cool, we're
special. How do they separate?
How do they separate them? Like do they?
Just they just use different bits of water.
(12:12):
Right, OK. Yeah.
But Oriental Bay given, you know, while it is a big harbor,
yeah, you know, in a southerly, we're a bit, everyone's a bit
space constrained. So use the same bit of water.
Yeah, there are a lot of other places.
The swimmers will go to 1 Beach and the rowers will be somewhere
else entirely. So we're a bit special that
that's the combination. Yeah.
(12:34):
And that was so colleague at thetime, John, he knew someone with
a swim shop in Patoni. And that's where we first
discovered swim floats. And John talked to the guy there
who did some research, said, Oh yeah, we don't really sell them,
(12:55):
but you can get them. So we did a subsidy on those
from to get some in and we made-up little stickers that
went on them. And that was the first load of
swim floats and then we start seeing them on the water, which
is always cool. Yeah.
And then it was, yeah, there there were a couple of accidents
and was turned to the swimmers and working with the rowers and
(13:17):
sort of out of that, I guess started getting awareness of the
groups were they were there. We had a bit to do with Philip
as well. And so met him and he talked
about Barb and other groups and.That's Philip Rush.
Philip Rush. Yeah, Yeah, he.
Was he was my last guest. All right, yeah, well, I mean,
(13:40):
we know he's been doing this game for a while.
Yes. And so, yeah, we sort of started
getting there and. And one of the, for all the
problems with social media, one of the great things is actually
in the sort of role like I find that ocean swimmers group really
helpful and an easy way to communicate with a lot of
(14:02):
people. So that's sort of that's where
it developed over time. And I think generally I think
we're in a reasonably good spot at the moment.
You know, the communication flows and it's it's always one
of those things where if we don't know there's a problem, we
won't try and fix it. So it's that communicate and,
(14:27):
you know, likewise. So yeah, that's it is a.
Really good. It is a really good portal in
there, isn't it? For people ask questions and
advice and people who are new toit and people finding groups.
And you mentioned toe floats before.
So let's let's just talk about them because it would be good,
(14:49):
might be good for listeners to know what the recommendations
are around toe floats as to whenthey should be putting one on.
OK, so there's actually strongerthan that.
There is a rule around Toast. Sorry.
That's a bylaw, so yeah, anyway.But in the last bylaw review,
which was four years ago now, we'd put something in that.
(15:14):
And actually, it's not just swimmers, it applies to free
divers and scuba divers as well.That anyone intending to be more
than 200 meters from shore should have a float or divers.
That means if they're not divingfrom a boat, because if they're
diving from a boat, they have a flag up that indicates where
(15:35):
they are. But in some places you'll get
shore divers will go out quite awhile right away.
And despite trying to inform to the country, people on boats
don't always expect to find a person in the water that far
from shore, right? And that's, that's the risk.
I mean, that's there's an onus on the boat to keep a lookout.
(15:58):
But he does a really small thing, you know, for the boaties
that especially the yachties, you do man overboard exercises
occasionally and you throw something sort of head sized in
the water and wow, it disappearsfast.
And that's something you're trying to see.
So if you don't know what's there, it's a bit scary.
(16:20):
So yeah. Yeah, so, so outside 200 meters
tow float. So that's things like, you know,
if you wanted to cross Evans Baywhere we we have people get in
touch. So we want to do a swim from sea
tune to Oriental, I think. And the usual advice on that is,
(16:41):
you know, maybe get a couple of kayaks and and please cross
evens band groups, because the other thing is a group is great
for visibility rather than individual.
So, yeah. So outside 200 meters, they need
to be there inside of that. I mean, I, I think they're a
(17:02):
great thing. They provide visibility, they
provide flotation. If you want to stop for a
breather, you've got something to grab.
And the one that really scares me is if you're going to go out
on the dark, you can put a torchin there.
Yes. Cuz yeah, yeah.
Swimming at night that just yeah, I I can see the appeal,
(17:25):
but it yeah, from a risk point of view.
There was health and safety, yeah.
Yeah, that one just scares me and.
Especially at this time of year because we've got the shorter
days and a lot of people swimming in the morning.
Yep, Yep, Yep. So.
And that's great. I've you know, last winter, one
morning as I was going around the bays early and there were
(17:45):
all these little lights just bubbling around in the.
Oh, that's beautiful, aren't they?
They're like, yeah, it's cool, Yeah.
Yep, Yep. So you know, a group of two or
three of those and you become really visible.
So. Are there are there rules or
regular or yeah, rules around the the size of the toeflow or
the shape of the toeflow? No.
No, it's just. I should know this, but I think
(18:08):
it's is a a brightly colored float.
Right. So, you know, black or dark blue
or dark green wouldn't be a flesh idea, but they tend to
come on sort of orange and yellows and everything like that
and. Yeah.
That's right, with a glow strokeor torch or something in them,
they're great. Yeah, it makes a big difference.
I'm not. I'm not a huge night swimmer,
(18:29):
but I have, I have done sort of dawn swims where you put one in
and yeah, the visibility is pretty incredible.
Yeah. Yeah.
So our Wellington ocean swimmingcommunity, you mentioned that
you've been Harbour Master for about 8 years, Is that right?
And so from what I've seen, and I've only been ocean swimming
(18:50):
for about four years, I think, but it looks like since the
pandemic with pool closures and things and people getting out
more and doing more outside activities, that it's grown a
lot in terms of the number of people getting in the water.
Yeah, I, I, I think the numbers have grown.
You know, when when the lighthouse swim started that the
(19:13):
organized event remazed at the number of people.
And then if you're going to do that for a competition, you'd
got to train it as well. And it's just more and more
numbers and also in different places as well.
I mean, it seems to be focused around our rental, but hi Tai,
Tai Beach and Lowry Bay and and a few other spots as well.
(19:38):
And yeah, that's right. And I was going to say we have
quite a big sort of marathon swim community here as well,
people who swim the cook straight and beyond and people
who swim in all weather. So you would say that, you know,
obviously people swim over winter, as they are doing right
now, but also in, you know, heavy rain, strong winds,
(19:58):
there's not much that deters some of the more hardcore
swimmers. I mean, from where you're
sitting, the swimmers, A swimmers getting sort of more
daring with their swims or are they becoming more safety
cautious or a bit of both? Probably a bit of both.
Yeah, one of the recent Cook Straight swimmers actually also
(20:20):
works at the council. All right.
His name has just escaped me, but yeah, he did that one
recently. I think they're going more
places like her in like the samebefore orange or Bay pretty
common, but now go around the corner to Ballina Bay and yeah,
(20:41):
they I had someone was talking about a training swim to Sims
because of course The Sims Patoni swim has been going for a
very long time. But yeah, other people doing
that outside that time. And I guess that's one of the
(21:02):
reasons too with the tow floats is you're starting to find
swimmers and places you don't normally.
I think Island Bay, there are a few as well.
And you know, a lot of our education material, because most
of ours is aimed at at boats or rowing or, or pedal boards or
(21:26):
what have you, you know, lookingout for swimmers is, is a
becoming a pretty standard thingon those.
So yeah, I think they're gettingmore adventurous.
I've seen overseas where they have multi sport events where
you check your shoes and your toe float, you swim apart, then
(21:47):
you put them on and run over something and then swim some
more. And yeah, good, good for them.
Yeah, yeah, they, yeah, they do seem to be growing in
popularity, don't they? Yeah.
Let's talk about the swim boys. And you mentioned those before,
how in Oriental Bay we have boys.
(22:07):
Are the boys just for swimmers to clarify, feel like they are,
but are they also? So which ones are you talking
about? We're teasing.
Now, yeah, good question. So we've got well I'm in Bob's
group and we call them the firstboy, second boy, third boy,
turning boy, Plus there are the 2 new white boys.
That were put in the summer. Yep, Yep.
(22:29):
So OK, so yeah, we call them thefive knot boys.
That's the yellow 5 knot boys because that's where you've got
to slow down to five knots, which is about it's it's a
walking pace out of nine kilometers an hour.
So they, they've been around fora long time and that's the the
(22:49):
indication for boaties. If they're heading towards the
beach, what have you, that's that's where they need to slow
down or if they're going out, that's where they can speed up.
So I've been out there as long as I've been with the council.
So yeah, quite a stretch. And mostly we've never actually
(23:11):
lit them because it's generally your recreational boating is
mainly A daytime activity. So the the ones in Oriental Bay
that have the lights on them, that was Maria and Karen who
also work at the council. We seem to have quite a few
(23:32):
oceans from the set our. Council infiltration going on.
Yes. And they said, oh, it'd be
really nice to see the boys. And with the advent of LEDs and
what have you, we've, we had some small boys that small
lights are reasonably easy to attach.
And so we put them on there. They asked the boys, how are we
(23:56):
the turning marker the, the, thebig one.
So that came about when we're going through the issue of
looking at rowers and swimmers. And one of the conflicted areas
was the lighthouse, because everyone aims for the lighthouse
because it's really big and easyto see.
(24:16):
Yeah. And so the thought was that was
we made it as close as we can 1 kilometer from Freiburg Beach
because we figure people that are training like numbers and
like distances. Yeah.
I know I, I, I'm always doing numbers in the head just so we
(24:39):
made it 1K the and it is almost,but not quite the lighthouse.
But it also just gives another alternative that's a bit further
away from the rowers. So the rowers as a matter of
course now are outside the boys.If the inside the agreement is
(25:01):
that they're not going at pace, they might be doing adjustments,
they might be doing something else.
And there's actually a coach boat that's providing lookout.
I think generally that's going pretty well.
And I'm sure I'm going to, there's going to be some
comments at it if it's not. But I, I, I know recently there
(25:23):
was an issue and I followed it up with the Roman clubs and they
went, yeah, no, they shouldn't have been in there.
And we're talking to the coachesabout it.
So they, they are trying to manage their responsibility as
well. So sorry.
That so, so that big turning boythat says swimming boy, swimming
Mark. That one was just put in
(25:44):
specifically for the swimmers. And then the white ones, the two
new white ones that came from last winter and August.
I think there was a bit of a sudden temperature drop, which
is a bit unusual. The harbor dropped about 2 1/2
(26:06):
three degrees over a couple of days.
And a couple of the winter swimmers got a bit caught out of
that and got oh, wow. I think at least one there's an
ambulance called because they got hypothermic and who was it?
Brie organized a bit of a bit ofa Hoey after that to get people
(26:28):
together and have a talk about it.
And somehow that the the inner boys came out of that and
because one of the suggestions and we went along think we did
the BBQ and I did speak, but reality was really to listen, to
(26:52):
hear what everyone else had to say.
Yeah. And one of the suggestions that
came out of that for winter swimmers was maybe you don't
have to go the whole way to either the lighthouse or the
turning boy. And what if there was something
else that they could do shorter laps of and and the rationale
(27:14):
behind that being if you actually found you were getting
really cold, you weren't as far from the beach to get out.
Yeah, you're not caught out a long distance from shore.
Yeah, yeah. And so came back to, well, OK,
what if we had some sort of roughly equidistant boys going
directly to the swim mark to be an alternative.
(27:37):
And from my point of view, looking at sort of the whole
raft of users there, I quite like it because the yellow boys
that traditionally were getting used, that's sort of the edge of
that. That's where the boats change
speed. So it's sort of like a footpath
(28:00):
on the edge of the motorway. In theory, it's where the cars
are stopping or slowing down, but it's really close.
Yeah. And so suddenly these white boys
are actually a good distance in.So if there's a boat coming in
that's not paying as good attention as they should, and
they slow down as they go past the boy, it still means that by
(28:23):
the time they get into their dinner line that they're where
they should be. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, it's, it's not excusing the behavior, but it's sort of
like the concept that a painted cycle line protects cyclists
from cars. It's yeah, it's a nice idea if
everyone does things exactly right.
Yeah, but sometimes you need to be pragmatic as well, right?
(28:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, yeah, I got a range of
feedback on that and decided, well, actually we'll throw a
couple out there and see what people think.
Yeah. And the feedback's been pretty
good. And actually, I can let you know
because I don't think this one'sbeen announced anywhere.
(29:07):
We have ordered some permanent boys because they are some old
marker boys that we just paintedwhite and they are going to be
bright pink. Oh, great.
Breaking news on the podcast. Breaking news on your podcast?
Yep, the 2 white boys will be turning into bright pink boys.
And they will be slightly tallerin the water, a little bit
(29:29):
fatter and a bit taller it's. Great to know, yeah.
Yeah. Pick will help with that our,
you know, aiming towards them definitely.
Yeah, yeah, that is, yeah. There's a lot of discussion
around colors and someone again in the Facebook group, yeah, put
in, there's a study done on bestcolor visibility of togs that
(29:53):
was actually comparing fresh water to salt water.
But actually pink and orange with a beta twos.
Yeah. Orange is probably a bit close
to our yellow boys. Yeah.
And we don't want them to look like that because we don't want
bodies to think that's where I slow down.
Yes. So we wanted something different
(30:14):
from the yellow. Yeah.
Yeah. Red and green are out because
they have other meanings. So.
Yeah. So we will put them and see what
they are. There's a lot of discussion
about lights as well about therewill be lights on the new one
still working on the color. So you can't get pink lights.
(30:37):
So that's not gonna happen. But we'll we'll see what we can
do on lights. I don't want them all yellow
because that's just gonna be confusing as all heat.
So yeah. Yeah, if any listeners have
thoughts or opinions on what color the lights should be,
maybe they can leave a comment. Yeah, yeah.
That's, that's AI need to talk to Maritime New Zealand to find
(30:59):
out what we're allowed to put onthere.
But yeah. Yeah, that's.
The rules and guidelines, but. You don't want too much disco
flashing, probably. Yeah, yeah, we don't.
So anyway. So.
Oh. That's awesome.
Well, thanks for that. They've been ordered and they
will happen at some stage. So yeah.
And I, I, I like the fact that it sort of came from an idea
(31:21):
from the swimmers. I know not everyone.
There are a few that thought it'd be a bit cluttered, but I I
think it's generally worked out OK.
Yeah, I. Mean when you're, when you're
swimming, they don't feel more, at least from in my opinion,
they don't feel cluttered and it's great.
That provides a bit more varietyas well in terms of where we're
going to swim and towards which boy as well, you know.
(31:43):
Yeah. And if these are a bit bigger
and the other thing coming back to the the cold water incident
last year is it gives people theoptions.
Rather than going right to the turning boy, they could just do
a few laps between the two, the 2 white boys in the middle and
come back so they're still not that far from from shore.
(32:06):
But forget the swimming. Yeah.
And when before you, when you were talking about boaties and
you know, sometimes they go a bit faster than they should or
they don't see a swimmer. It's the most helpful thing from
a boaties perspective that obviously a swimmer has a tow
float, but also that people swimin groups to help with
visibility. From my point of view, yeah,
(32:27):
from just being out on the water, one of the things that
amazed me the first time I went out or the the ocean swim, the
lighthouse swim, was actually the noise.
The amount of noise 300 swimmersmake is just just the arms in
and out of the water. The tuning.
The tuning, yeah, obviously I'm not suggesting you go out in
(32:50):
groups of 300, but yeah, no, I, I think for visibility it's
really good. And when people ask about doing
longer swims or open water swims, that's why I'm quite a
fan of a kayak or something likethat, because it's, you know,
one kayak is about the size of three or four swimmers on the
(33:12):
water. So it's it's just being visible
because it's really hard for people to avoid something they
can't see or they don't notice. Yes, yeah, one thing we we've
talked quite a bit about the ocean swimmers as in people who
are swimming offshore more than 200 meters.
There are also a lot of dipping groups in Wellington and Dippers
(33:34):
as in people who get in the water like on a daily basis all
year round, but they're not going sort of past past their
heads more getting in for like does that.
Is that part of your sort of jurisdiction as well?
Like, are there safety issues around that or is it more really
just the people swimming offshore?
I believe the distance because it's, it's an interesting one.
(33:57):
And if you read through our legislation and rules and what
have you, most of our work concentrates around vessels of
some type or another. And that could be a stand up
pedal board, it could be an inter island ferry and
everything in between. And so swimmers are interesting
(34:18):
because they are water users, but they don't sort of fit under
our rules because you don't havea, you're not on or in a thing,
you're just in the water. So from my point of view that
it's the interaction because actually no matter what the
(34:39):
scale where we have issues as interaction at your scale that
could be between the rowers and the swimmers, between the
ferries and yachts, same thing. They're both fine on their own,
but put them both in the same place and people get upset.
So yeah, so the, the the dippers, they're in close to
(35:03):
shore, they're not going to be mixing with with other water
activities. So don't really have that same
connection there. That's it's the distance and the
location I guess with the ocean swimmers is is where we connect
there. You mentioned earlier the
platforms that are just offshore.
(35:24):
So there's one Freiburg Beach, which is I think about 80 metres
offshore and there's one in Oriental Bay.
They're variously, they're called platforms, pontoons or
rafts. I don't know if one name is more
correct than another. It's.
Yeah. They were they, they're out
there. I, I was, I was going to say,
you know, they're a recreationalthing there for people to jump
(35:46):
off or to swim out to. Is that?
Yeah, yeah, swim out to. I like to.
Sit on jump. Off yeah, some label on.
I like how on Google Maps someone pointed out that they're
labeled the party pontoons. Yeah, yeah, they're very
popular. It's.
There's a Christmas tree that goes on on.
(36:07):
Sometimes, yeah, you know, we don't do Christmas trees, but I
have seen that happen. Yeah, that's a swimmer.
A swimmer LED initiative I think.
Yes. So I think there's a plaque
somewhere on the wall at our rental.
Yeah, they were. If I've got this right, they're
originally called the Iliot Rafts, I think is also one of
(36:30):
the buildings at Victoria University, but it was Oriental
Bay. Residents had contributed
towards putting them out there and the harbour board used to
look after them. So we're going back a long time
here. And then after that, the, the
(36:56):
spending of that sort of by default, Regional Council picked
them up and we'd take them over to Singapore and lift them out
on the to, to dry out each year.And then earthquakes came along
and took out the land that they used to sit on and made that
difficult. And actually it's a bit odd
(37:19):
because Regional Council, we don't tend to provide things
like that was a was a probably ahistoric thing that we were
looking after them. So we've actually that they're
now handed back to Wellington City Council, who they maintain
a look after them with still with some input from the
(37:41):
residents association because they helped to rebuild a number
of years ago. And so we assist by telling them
to and from Evans Bay each year and and hooking them up and
taking them back. And yeah.
Were they out? Were they there a bit longer
this year or am I imagining that?
They were. It varies a bit.
(38:04):
There's more pressure to keep them there longer.
I longer term, I think that's a problem.
I think they need to come out probably around May and don't be
too much of A rush to put them in because they are quite wet
when they come out of the water and a few months drying out
doesn't do them any harm. But sort of around Labor Day
(38:26):
ish, maybe we'll, we'll see. It's always, you know, we get
that nice bit of weather and everyone thinks we'll all go
down to the beach and then we get 3 or 4 weeks of rubbish
following that's. Yeah, that's right.
Typical Wellington. Yeah, yeah, so many, many years
ago. Oh, let's see, almost someone
(38:48):
was born probably pushing 18 oddyears ago.
I'd been down at the gym and Freiburg 1 morning and as
they're waiting for someone and their two swimmers are coming
out of the shower and that's it.So it said something about we,
we just removed the rafts. Someone took the rafts away and
(39:11):
went oh, that might have been me.
And she's like, what did you do there before we toy our
thermometer to. Ah, it was, but there's always a
float there so we could find themooring.
And yes, if people wish to hook a thermometer up to that, but
yeah. Yeah, interesting.
People have their own ways of measuring the water and their
(39:33):
own systems don't know that theylike to have.
And another sort of water feature we have is the Carter
fountain. So it's the water fountain.
Only recently learned how rare it is to have a salt water
fountain. I don't think there are many in
the world. Yeah.
And the history, I believe, is that there was a Mr. Carter, a
(39:56):
businessman, who funded the fountain and then sadly drowned
just only days after it was. Oh, my goodness.
Yeah. Yeah.
So it's a bit of a sort of a sadstory behind it that is from a
swimmer's perspective, you know,it's quite special to be
swimming around it when it comeson and the it's swimming.
(40:18):
Are there set times that it thatit depends on and off?
Do you know? I don't know about times I know.
So again, that's that's Wellington City.
Look after that one. I believe there's wind
instruments on top of the band Rotunda and so if it's a strong
northerly, it doesn't come on because the saltwater spray gets
(40:41):
blown over oriental. So it's it's about direction and
speed. OK, I don't know that.
I guess there must be a timer aswell, because there are lots of
days it could be going. It isn't.
So yeah, yeah, there must be a timer too, yeah?
I'll ask the Council. Yeah, yeah, that's, that's wrong
Council, Sorry you're. Right.
I was going to ask about marine life in the harbour because
(41:04):
obviously we have some marine life that is a regular feature
like seals in the sort of aroundthis time of year, you know in
the in certain months we have orcas.
Occasionally we get a leopard seal that swims up from
Antarctica or a southern right whale.
Is that part of your jurisdiction or is that more a
(41:25):
dock department of conservation?No, that's, that's more a dock
thing. And it's, it's an interesting
one. There was a photo couple of
years ago of some baby sharks inOriental people standing in the
(41:45):
water with the sharks around their feet.
And these things will maybe 30 or 40 centimeters long.
So they were the tiny little ones.
And because it's sandy, you'll get, you'll get rays in there as
well. And yeah, no, that's just they,
(42:06):
they do what they do. The whale number of years ago,
we got a little bit involved in that on two things.
There's a bit of a shady fit between ourselves and police and
a little bit of dock. I've actually just making sure
(42:28):
people kept at a bit of distance.
But the other complication with that is the whale would have its
followers of kayakers and paddleboarders and small boats.
And then you get a ship coming through.
So the whale sort of flicks its tail and disappears out the road
and leaves all these other boatsin the road.
(42:50):
So yeah, the, the that's very cool to see the whales in the
harbor and they do what they do,but it's it's just really
sometimes managing the people around them because it's more
more of the challenge. I was thinking about that
because when a southern right whale comes in, it's I guess it
only seems to happen every sort of seven years or so from.
(43:13):
Yeah, it's not too often. No, but the city almost comes to
a standstill. Yeah, people want to see it and
it's. Oh, absolutely.
And orca, it's amazing. We see the orca in there.
There's a video of 1 surfaced inChafer's Marina.
So the front of the Marina is a floating breakwater.
(43:35):
It's not solid. So obviously it had come
underneath there and it was justswimming down the rows between
the boats. And it's like, wow, that's
interesting. Yeah, they're huge and they come
so close and shore, don't they? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And they like they're, they're quite a fan of seals of
Stingrays, yes. So, yeah, yeah, yes.
(43:59):
Yeah. Liquid suits maybe not so good
that week. Right.
Yeah, that's right. Last year you had a fairly
dramatic day when a swimmer entered the shipping channel.
They were someone who wasn't a Wellingtonian, I believe.
I don't know. I don't know the exact details,
but they swam in front of the was it the Blue Bridge Ferry?
(44:22):
Yes. And so the ferry had to stop and
be notified that there was a swimmer, and then the swimmer
had to be sort of escorted. That yeah, yeah, yeah.
Does that sort? Of thing happen very often.
Thankfully, no. Yeah, right.
No. Yeah, relatively new to
Wellington. I now know the person.
(44:45):
I mean, I'm, I'm laughing about it, but I shouldn't laugh
because obviously I'm only laughing because there was a
happy ending and that right nobody was hurt.
Yeah, I mean, I must admit, it'slike, oh, somebody got on the
way of the fairy is like, you'vegot to be kidding.
How does that happen? But yeah, that's sort of gone
from Queen's Wharf and saw the fountain and not the fountain,
(45:06):
saw the lighthouse and off they went.
And yeah, so they understand a bit more about ferry timetables
and and where you swim. And shipping channels.
And so how, how did you hear about it?
Did you hear about it from the the ferry or?
From, from the ferry, Yeah. And I think from memory, the
(45:27):
police might have gone out and and had a chat just because they
were handy on the water. But, yeah, and they're a
competent swimmer, but just sortof, you know, Queen's Wharf,
there's a lighthouse. Off we go.
They weren't right in front of it, but they were close enough
to cause some angst at the fairymaster because I mean, yeah, you
(45:52):
you think small boats are bad, Fairy versus a swimmer.
That's that's fairy's not actually going to notice.
No, Yeah, it doesn't get thinking about, does it?
No, the moral of the the moral of the story is to talk to local
swimmers before you go out. Talk to the locals, know your
areas, know where the risk points are.
Yeah, yeah, swimming from town outwards is, is interesting
(46:17):
because you've got the Marina entrance there as well and it's
not always an area that OTS are going to expect to see swimmers.
So yeah, that's, that's a bit ofAI know there's groups that go
between Queen's Wharf and down by the Hicketeer and backwards
(46:39):
and forwards there and that's that, that's cool.
But yeah, just the things like Marina entrances I'm I'm always
wary of because especially you've got boats going in and
out of there that they're eitherthey've just come out and
they're getting things sorted orthey're getting ropes and
fenders outgoing in. And yeah, that that's, that's
(47:03):
where being in a group and floats and things like that are
really good. The other one that's picked up
from us from a couple of years back was they have a whistle on
a, on a little wristband just tucked into their wetsuit.
And if they think about it's getting a bit close, they'll
(47:24):
just get on that, which is greatbecause your voice doesn't carry
particularly well, but a shrill little whistle is really
annoying. And it does.
And I, I think that's a, that's a great idea as well.
I've got one in my toeflat. I think somebody suggested that.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. But having on the wrist is
(47:45):
probably a better idea because it's a lot more accessible in a
hurry, right? Yeah, they just had one of those
like curly little wristband things.
So it's got a bit of stretch nut, but even if it is short on
your wrist, you can get your hand close to your mouth and
just give a couple of glass there just to wake up whoever it
is. Yeah, and and also you get a
(48:06):
cramp, you get into difficulty, something like that.
It's it's a great way of gettingattention.
Yeah, it's a really good safety tip.
You mentioned earlier that you're a keen sailor if you're a
swimmer. At various times I do have a toe
float IA number of years ago quite regularly used to do all
(48:31):
lengths. I don't think the fitness is
there at the moment. Actually, no, it's not not
really. I don't I don't do the distance
in the sea as a family. We try and get down to the
sounds over summer and, you know, jumping off the boat and
(48:54):
swimming around there is is definitely, I love that.
I'm I'm quite happy in the water.
But yeah, I don't think the the fitness is quite up to stretch
for that one at the moment. Yeah, fair enough.
And it's it's not necessarily the best time of year to be
swimming in the ocean, although a lot of people are still doing
it in the winter. I know you're on the.
You've probably heard of the Iceswimming championships that are
(49:17):
happening down South and a lot of Wellington swimmers take
part. Well, I, I shouldn't say a lot.
Some, some Wellington will take part in that.
And I know that they use the harbour in the winter to train
to, you know, build up their I can.
Understand that entirely. Yeah.
You know, that's that's that's that's impressive.
(49:37):
Yeah. And the ones that swim in winter
without a wet suit. Wow.
I'm just. Yeah, wow.
Yeah. That's impressive.
Yeah, I I agree. I usually wear a wet suit for
swims in the harbour, so yeah, Iagree, it's impressive.
I have another question from listener Tim.
Is there anything that we as ocean swimmers can do to make
(49:59):
your job easier apart from wearing a toe flirt?
No, I think I I I can't get pastvisibility being visible.
Yeah, bright colours. Bright colors, groups, toe
floats, whistle, any of that stuff.
(50:23):
And I guess if you want to do something different and go
somewhere new, have a look who else is using the area?
Do you need some floating support or And that's probably 1
to talk to us. You know, we've had people that
(50:45):
say I want to do a swim from here to there.
If it's a large event, definitely talk to us.
But if it's just a small one might say, well, actually that's
not so good because of this. Have you thought about changing
it to there? It's not about not trying new
(51:06):
things because there's a big harbor and there are lots of
places, but it's, it's again, it's just thinking about that
possible interaction and, and how you can make that safe and,
and minimize the risk of that. Yeah.
So, yeah, I mean, I think you know, the dealings in the last
(51:28):
few years, you've got a really proactive swimming community and
and quite safety conscious. So yeah, that's great.
You mentioned Bri earlier, Brianna Ward, who also had her
own episode on this podcast. Yep.
You did the Hoey with and the safety session.
Would you conduct more of those or is that more LED?
(51:50):
Led by her? That one was led by her.
We're happy to be part of them. What we've found in all sorts of
areas, not just the swimmers, isthat when we tried to spark that
stuff off, it's not usually thatexciting and people aren't that
fussed about it. However, it's it's when we're in
(52:16):
an activity group or group of people that are interested in
something, we're more than happyto come along and be part of
that. Yeah, as it's just the thing,
you know, rules and regulations are boring.
No one's really that excited about them, but.
Until they need them though, right?
Until they need them. Yeah.
(52:38):
So, yeah, we, I mean, yeah, thatthat's, that's great to do
things like that. And, you know, love to be
invited along. And if we can, you know, to and,
and if we can contribute, that'sit.
You know, there's got to be somebenefit both for you and for us,
(53:01):
for us to be there. Yeah.
And and and more than happy to to do that, yeah.
Well, that's good to know. And so if someone is planning on
doing a, a, a longer swim or organizing a swim somewhere
that's a little bit more unusualthan Oriental Bay, what's the
best way to get in touch with you?
(53:23):
How do people normally make contact?
We have probably or e-mail is aneasy 1 harbours at gw.gov T I'll
send that through. You can ring us on the the
council number 3845708. I'll pass on those contacts and
(53:50):
yeah, you've get put through to someone on the team and yeah,
we're we're not too hard to find.
Cool. That's good to know.
And is there anything else you'dlike to mention or talk about
that I haven't already asked youabout before we wind up?
No, I think that's, that's pretty good.
(54:10):
I, I guess just what I was saying, I think there's really
good open water community seems to be really supportive.
You know, there's some good workgoing on on the safety focus
with Brie and others. And you know, for us, being able
to deal with groups is so easy, you know, to try and find every
(54:35):
swimmer to talk to is just not going to happen.
But being able to share information and I guess for you
all to have somewhere you can share back through, actually
that's the other one for contactis even through the Facebook
group, I've had a few people on Messenger have just flicked me a
(54:56):
message. That's not always the most
reliable, but I will pick it up at some stage.
But yeah. Yeah, cool.
Yeah, yeah. And actually the other number
I'll put through to you is if there's anything that's going
bad that needs urgent WellingtonHarbor Radio, they're our 24/7
(55:18):
contact. So if you get hold of them,
they'll they'll get someone in touch with you or, or do
something like that. Yeah.
OK, cool. And I'll put all these details
in the show nights of the episode as well so people can.
That'll be awesome. Yeah, cool.
Well, thank you, Grant. First of all, thank you for your
time, but also for looking afterthe the harbor and allowing us
(55:39):
to keep doing what we enjoy doing and.
Oh no, it's cool. I mean, it's, it's a big harbor
and there are lots of users and just, you know, got to make it
work for everyone. And thank you for the pink, pink
swim boys that are coming. Looking forward to those.
Yeah, I, I don't know when, but they have it all right, so.
I won't hold you to a date, but just to know they're coming is
still coming. Thanks for listening to this
(56:02):
episode of Swim Chats. Please remember to follow or
subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode.
And if you enjoyed it, you can leave a five star rating and
review which helps other people find it too.
Enjoy the water and we'll see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.