MARGARET SWEENEY AT LAKE TE ANAU

Taupo Times, Volume V, Issue 207, 20 January 1956, Page 5

MARGARET SWEENEY AT LAKE TE ANAU

Miss Margaret Sweeney, whose successful attempt on Sunday, J anuary 30, 1955, to swim from Ihe southern end of Lake Taupo to Taupo created great national interest, made further swimming history during the recent holidays hy swimming eight aud a half miles in the chilly waters of Lake Te Anau in three and a half hours. The day before Miss Sweeney's swim a 25-yearold Invercargill swimmer, Leo Holloway, swarn across Lake Wiakatipu 4 at oue of its widest points, a distance of nearly four miles, in an hour and a half. Both these performances differ markedly in their eonditions from Miss Sweeney's conquest of Lake Taupo, owing to the considerahly lower temperature of the water of the Southern lakes as compared with Taupo. The feats of Miss Sweeney and Leo Holloway may result in leading swimmers paying more attention to the southern lakes. The weather was ideal for Holloway's swim, but at Te Anau Miss Sweeney experiienced a strong breeze that made it impossible for her to start at the intended point. She chose more sheltered water, but this did not diminish the merit of her effort. The swims attracted keen interest and each swimmer was followed by flotillas of small craft. Miss Sweeney's swimming of Lake Taupo, from a point in Stump Bay, east of the Tongariro Biver delta near Tokaanu, to the beach at Taupo, was the first such attempt to be made. Starting at 4.35 a.m. on the day already mentioned, she reached the beach at Taupo at 6.14 p.m. Her friend, Miss Pat Hastings, who started with her, had covered 19 or 20 miles when taken from the water at Rangatira Point at 4 p.m., the longest swim, with the exception of Miss Sweeney's, ever done in Lake Taupo. The swimmers started from a point in Stump Bay whenee the western ends of Motuoapa Peninsula and Motutaiko Island were in line. The spot Wihere Miss Sweeney reached the Taupo beach has been marked by a stone seaUplaced immediately above it on the Lake front, some 60 yards or so east of the foot of Tongariro Street. Oommanding an unobstructed view of the Lake and mountains, the seat, which was built by Mr Sam Williams, of Taupo, is much used, particularly by visitors.