COOK STRAIT SWIM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 6 February 1928, Page 5

COOK STRAIT SWIM

WEBSTER ABANDONS ATTEMPT

AFTER EIGHT MILES

(United Press Association)

BLENHEIM, 4th February. Webster abandoned his attempt to swim Cook Strait after swimming eight miles.

WATER TOO COLD

ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO BE MADE

BLENHEIM, sth February. Webster made his first attempt to swim Cook Strait from Terawhiti to Wellington Head, but the water was too cold, and after .covering about eight miles in 2£ hours he had to give up. A northerly tide was reckoned on, but he found a strong southerly set instead. The weather was cold, dull and foggy, and there was considerable chop in the water.

He : started at 9.15 and got through

the Terawhiti rip, and by 11.15 was in 5 calmer water, but cold told its tale, and Webster had to be helped aboard the launch, numbed - all over. Even those in the launch were glad of overcoats. Webster intends to have another try later oik «■•• ■ ••- *•' •"*•.'•

STRAIT CROSSED-BY A MAORI WOMAN WITH. CHILD TIED ON HER BACK AUCKLAND, This Day. - Long before the days of egg flip and Annette Kellerman, cup?,, successful attempts were made to swim Cook Strait, said*Mr David Reardon, a well-known Wanganui authority on Native affairs, this morning, in referring to the unsuccessful attempt made on Saturday to accomplish the feat. It was, an established fact that present natives at Tainui. Pa (Otaki)' were descended from a j ' native woman who accomplished . the greatest swimming feat in New ■ Zealand history. With a baby on her back, tied with flax strips, she set out from D'Urville Island, landing in an exhausted state with her child on Kapiti Island. After, resting for a day she swam the intervening seven miles to the mainland. ,Mr Reardon said there was also on record-the case of - a slave who leaped overboard from a canoe near Barrett's Reef, at the entrance to Wellington harbour. He finally got ashore at Blind .Bay,' in the South Island. It is known -that in this instance the swimmer rested, on a floating tree which he met by chance in the middle of the strait.