Corrina Connor on swimming NZ's Triple Crown, extreme ice miles, and having fun in inhospitable conditions

Corrina Connor is a Wellington ultramarathon swimmer, ice swimmer, musician, and the MC of Wellington's popular Sea Panels at Te Matapihi central library.

In this episode we talk about Corrina's swim journey from a teenager at the pool to setting 20km+ targets in the open water. She swam across the Cook Strait (Te Moana-o-Raukawa) in December 2021, after a thwarted first go in March of the same year. She swam Foveaux Strait (Te Ara a Kiwa) in 2023 and Lake Taupō in 2024. She also completed a circumnavigation of Rangitoto Island in 2025. (You can read her excellent write-ups of her big swims on her blog, Goggles at Dawn.)

We also talk more generally about how to stay positive during very long (or very cold) swims, technique, training goals and swim routines, and feeding plans.

This month Corrina is training for the NZ Ice Swimming Championships in July and is also taking part in Coastguard NZ's Big Swim fundraiser – you can sponser her via her fundraising page.

Because Corrina has done so much swimming (24km in the pool and sea per week is not uncommon), I asked a lot of questions and this episode is about 90 minutes long. It's a good one – grab a hot beverage of your choice and enjoy!

The photo shows Corrina swimming an ice mile (about 1.6km) at St Bathans in 2023. (Corrina Connor)

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Thanks for listening! :-)