Under 100km to Go

Jono Ridler has broken into double digits, with less than 100km remaining in his Swim4TheOcean mission.

He’s expected to arrive at Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington within the coming week, with weather set to dictate the exact day and time. 

Now deep into the remote lower Wairarapa coastline, off Tora, Jono and the support crew were back on the water on Saturday, 28 March after two days forced ashore. 

On Thursday, 30-knot northeasterlies arrived earlier than forecast, bringing 3-metre swells crashing onto the exposed coastline. Friday was never expected to be viable, and while the team had hoped to fit in one swim on Thursday, a safety call was made. 

The crew relocated base camp to Tora and waited for a workable weather window. 

Local legends at Tora Collective have been hugely helpful with planning logistics around this area and with a nor-east swell still running the Swim4TheOcean team made the call to accept an offer for their dozer-launched cray boat Tākitimu to act as on-water support today. 

Look out for them as Jono makes his way down this coast and around Mātakitaki-a-Kupe Cape Palliser as they add another layer of support. 

The first swim got underway at 8.11am, with Jono in for 4.5 hours. He was back in the water at 3.15pm but came out just after 5.30pm – earlier than planned due to prolific jellyfish. They were up against wind and choppy seas as well.  

Andy Tuke said, “We pulled the swim this afternoon, 2 hours 19 minutes into a four-hour swim because Jono was getting stung by jellyfish. We’ll regroup and come back out in the morning and keep going.” 

Back on land, Jono reflected on the day. “We did the four and half hours in the morning. Lots of wind rushing off the hills – it was forecast for about 15 knots, it felt more like 30 knots with that wind gathering all this momentum through the valleys. We’d heard that that happened and experienced it today.

“Second swim didn’t go according to plan. Ended up feeling a bit dejected by the end of that one. I ended up calling the swim because the water was so thick with these barbed wire jellyfish and I couldn’t go anywhere without getting stung and I didn’t see the sense in continuing.” 

As a result of the shortened second swim, the gains today were less than hoped with 15.6km added to the tally. The team returned to Tora to overnight, before preparing to head back out again. 

Ahead lies Mātakitaki-a-Kupe Cape Palliser at the southern tip of the North Island, before turning into Te Moana-o-Raukawa Cook Strait.

Conditions remain dynamic, and it’s likely more time will be lost to weather across this exposed stretch. 

With 95.71km to go, Wellington is getting closer. 

🗓️ Earliest projected arrival: Thursday, 2 April 
📍 Finish: Central Wellington waterfront (exact location TBC) 

From there, Jono will walk to Parliament to deliver the Swim4TheOcean call to decision makers – a message backed by a growing wave of public support to end bottom trawling. More than 45,000 people have now signed the call for action. 

Follow Jono’s progress on the live tracker and add your signature to the call to end bottom trawling at Swim4TheOcean. 

Projected distance to go: 95.71km 

Total distance covered: 1,270.4km

Swims at a glance – 28 March 

Swim 1

Time: 4 hours 30 mins 
Distance: 11.26km 
Average speed: 2.5km/h 

Swim 2

Time: 2 hours 19 mins  
Distance: 4.36km 
Average speed: 1.9km/h