Professor David Hutchinson, of the Department of Physics, is taking on the challenge of swimming across the Cook Strait next week to raise money for new sprinklers for Tūhura Otago Museum.
An accidental phone call has snowballed into Professor David Hutchinson’s boldest mission yet. Next week, he’ll jump in at the deep end — literally — to swim the Cook Strait for a good cause.
The Physics Professor, and Board Chair of Tūhura Otago Museum, is taking on the open-water swim to raise funds for the museum and raise awareness of the importance of museums.
While David has always been a keen swimmer - and had considered taking on the Cook Strait in the future - accidentally phoning long-distance Kiwi swimmer Philip Rush, who has swum the Strait eight times, brought the timeline forward.
While David quickly hung up the accidental call, Philip called him back immediately and by the time the call ended, the plan for the 22km swim was locked in.
“Phil’s a famous swimmer. He was the first to complete a double crossing of the Cook Strait and he still holds the record for fastest triple cross of the English Channel.”
David says he’s “always been a swimmer”, swimming competitively in swimming pools until he was in his 20s, but never long-distance.
“I used to hate the 400m freestyle.”
About a year ago, he joined a group that swims in Otago Harbour.
Prior to that accidental call just three months ago, he was swimming most days at Moana Pool, and every Sunday and most Wednesday evenings in the Otago Harbour. He has since upped that to three or four times a week in the harbour, regularly swimming up to 9km.
Professor David Hutchinson, of the Department of Physics, training for his upcoming Cook Strait crossing challenge.
Strong 50km winds cut short an attempt to swim the length of Otago Harbour just prior to Christmas.
“We got as far as Macandrew Bay from Aramoana (about 16km) after six and half hours.”
He admits he is feeling a “bit nervous” ahead of next week’s swim.
“The weather doesn’t look great. I know I can swim the distance given an appropriate amount of time, but that’s not the only issue. You’ve the challenge of currents, tides, you’ve got a finite amount of time. That requires a certain rate.”
He says if the weather and tides cooperate, it’s likely he will swim from Wellington to Marlborough, but could just as easily go the other way.
He’ll be joined by Phil, who operates that safety boat that accompanies any swimmers taking on the challenge.
“I’m in the best hands possible. Phil is very experienced at this. He’s taken about 450 people out and about 150 people have succeeded. So out of the slightly over 200 that have succeed, most of them were with him.”
David is taking on this challenge to not only raise money for Tūhura Otago Museum to install more sprinklers, but to also raise awareness that the museum is a charity.
“There is active fire suppression on the museum, but not everywhere. It is something that is essential that we do to improve the security of the collection.”
Putting in more sprinklers is an expensive and difficult project, he says.
Tūhura Otago Museum is a charity, so while it gets some council funding, it only covers a portion of its expenses.
“We have an annual turnover approaching $12 million , so we have to find about $6 million of that a year. Trying to then do capital projects requires fundraising, external grant money or other things on top of that.”
David has a Givealittle page set up for people to donate to the museum.
-Kōrero by Koren Allpress, Internal Communications Adviser
EDIT: David's attempt to cross the Cook Strait on Wednesday, January 28 was unfortunately cut short because of difficult conditions.
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