The stopover highlighted Swim4TheOcean’s mission, including calls to end bottom trawling, with growing public support.
Bay of Islands – Swim4TheOcean makes Bay of Islands and first community stopover
By Live Ocean
14/01/2026
Read time: 3 min
Article Summary
Main Points
Jono Ridler completed a challenging four-hour, nearly 14km swim into tough conditions, bringing his total distance to over 150km on his journey toward Wellington.
Despite strong headwinds and unhelpful currents, he maintained an impressive pace and was warmly welcomed by the Bay of Islands community at Waitangi.
Jono Ridler started just before 9am and swum a four shift this morning coming out of the water onto the StabiX off Purerua Peninsula and Nine Pin having swim close to 14km.
He’s now logged more than 150km in total on this epic mission bound for Wellington.
His next swim leg will start around 1pm at the very same spot he finished – then take a straight-line towards Cape Brett as he pushes south down the coast stopping ashore into beaches and communities along the way.
Speaking from the on-water as the four-hour swim shift was wrapping up, Andy Tuke, On-Water Lead reported on conditions and how Jono was going;
“We’ve got a12knot north easterly, so Jono’s swimming straight into it. The current today is on the beam today – coming in on his left and not giving him any assistance.
“Jono’s swum really well today – over a 3km/hour average without assistance and straight into the waves – but he’s just gone for it and it’s been very impressive.
“We’re just out from Nine Pin at the moment so he’s swum to the Bay of Islands this morning and it’s a pretty good feeling all round to get down this far.”
Jono and the Swim4TheOcean operations team came into Waitangi welcomed with applause at the Bay of Islands Yacht Club by iwi, club members and community.
“We’ve just had this really cool event here in the Bay of Islands, getting to know some of the locals and talking a bit more about what we’re doing,” said Ridler.
“This morning it was a four-hour swim punching straight into the swell and chop which was not the most enjoyable thing, but I managed to get through that. Overall, spirits are high, body’s feeling pretty good and I’m about to check in with a physio as well – so things have been really good over the last few days and I’m looking forward to the next week to continue that momentum.”
Karli Thomas, Deep Sea Conservation Coalition came along to the Waitangi community stopover – sharing her specialist knowledge on underwater mountains (seamounts) and the damage caused by bottom trawling. People can show their support for the call to end bottom trawling – already more than 2,800 have signed.
Today’s swim
Time: 4hours 2mins
Distance: 13.8km
Speed: 3.42km/hour
Tomorrow morning Ridler will rest during the morning, return to the marked waypoint and get under at around 1pm.
Conditions
Northeasterly breeze of around 12knots with a related swell and chop. Sunny and mild.
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