COOK STRAIT

Hokitika Guardian, 17 January 1929, Page 5

COOK STRAIT

AUSS CO PPL EASTON ITS EFFORT. NEXT SATURDAY MORNING. .By Telegraph—Per Press Association.) BLENIIEIAI, Jan. 17. At two o’clock on Saturday morning next. Lily Copplcstone, the plucky Ashburton lady swimmer, , will enter the waters of Cook Strait from a point on tbc Marlborough Sounds coast line and attempt to swim across to the North Island. The feat was only once previously essayed, but was never accomplished, by a European, though according to a Maori legend, a native woman years ago did conquer the strait. Aiiss Copplestonc leaves Christ, church to-night on the ferry boat for Wellington and will arrive there tomorrow morning. She will disembark from the Tamahine at Oluikiri near Teawaite to-morrow afternoon and proceed ashore in a launch to Air Al. F. Kenny’s house where she will sleep and rest until an hour before the time arrives for her to enter the water. The swimmer will enter the water at 2 a.in. on Saturday at Cape Koaniaru, which is a few miles west of Brothers Light. The objective on the Nforth Island will bo Lace Point near Alaknra Beach. The distance from point to point in a direct line is approximately sixteen miles, but owing to the strong tides and currents for which the Strait is* famous, the swimmer, will have to swim a course like., two sides of a triangle the base of which would be a direct line. UN ARRIVED. AIISS GLEITZE NOT ABOARD. . WELLINGTON. Jan. 17. A great deal of interest was taken in the expected arrival by the Corinthic of Aiiss Alercedes Gleitze, the noted Channel swimmer, but she was not aboard, and even incognito apparently. She is reported to have planned to swim Cook Strait. Those who went in expectation of meeting her had to comfort themselves with the information tlfat she was expected on the next lioat. EXPERIENCED MAN’S IDEA. WELLINGTON, January 17. A. J. Rutherford, writing as one having experience of Cook Strait, deprecates the idea of a woman attempting to swim it. He recounts how as a youngster in,a canoe he was followed by a large shark and had a narrow escape. In addition to this souVce of danger, he considers the variation of the currents and temperature do not make it a proper place for swimming experiments. ,