COOK STRAIT SWIM.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 31, 7 February 1928, Page 5

COOK STRAIT SWIM.

ACHIEVED BY A WHITE MAN. ACCOMPANIED. BY CANOE. (By Telegraph—Own Correspondent.) WANGANUI. this day. Following on the Auckland report that a Maori woman swam across Cook Strait from Durville Island to Kapiti, it is stated here that a white man, the son of an old whaler named Powell, who spent many years with the Maoris on the East Coast, also swam the Strait. He was a friend of the late Mr. Martin, a Maori, and the husband of the late Julia Martin, "the Grace Darling of New Zealand," who carried out rescues at the time of the wreck of the Delaware near Pepin's Island. Martin himself had crossed the Strait on various occasions in a canoe and one day while he was at Waikanae Powell agreed to swim the Strait if Martin's canoe ,would accompany him. The pair camped at Terawhiti and early one fine 6ummer morning they set out, Martin in the canoe and Powell swimming. He was successful in landing on the South Island before dusk. They then proceeded in the canoe to Cable Bay, where Martin owned a large block of land.