Grandmother of nine swims Cook Strait

A grandmother of nine battled hypothermia to become the oldest person to swim the Cook Strait.

Rotorua woman Pam Dickson, 55, swam the 26km from Ohau Pt on Wellington's west coast to Perano Head in Marlborough Sounds in nine hours and 23 minutes on Friday.

She took the record from 53-year-old Scott Coleman who had done it in 10 hours 27 minutes in 2007, but she nearly didn't make it.

"I can't recall the last few kilometres at all," Ms Dickson told the Dominion Post yesterday.

"It was the cold. I started to go round in circles. I have no recollection of finishing."

She had previously finished 15 Iron Men, but said the Cook Strait was a bigger challenge because of the cold.

"If it was warm, you could just keep swimming. But you're battling hypothermia".

Ms Dickson did the swim without a wetsuit amid gusty southerlies with sea temperatures dropping from 18 to 16 degrees celsius.

- NZPA