KEY POINTS:
Barrie Devenport remembers the day he swam Cook Strait as clearly as yesterday, but says a particularly memorable moment came in the last minutes of the swim when nature called.
"I hadn't stopped to relieve myself in the last two hours and needed to, so I stopped and rolled over. Everyone was yelling to keep swimming and I remember thinking 'leave me alone, I'm going to do this'."
He said it was interesting when then Prime Minister Keith Holyoake later asked him why he had stopped and he had had to let him in on the secret.
On November 20, 1962, Devenport became the first person to swim the 26km between the North and South Island. He returns to Wellington to attend celebrations commemorating the event this weekend.
The successful swim was Devenport's second attempt, having missed out the previous year by just one mile. It was planned in secret with few in the know until it was under way.
"I'd come close the last time, and it was competitive. We offered to tell TV when it was going to happen if they would keep it a secret, but they didn't agree. Radio New Zealand knew though and they interrupted broadcasting to commentate throughout the day."
The achievement grabbed international headlines and caused a stir in New Zealand, so much so that Mr Holyoake arranged to have his pre-dinner caucus meeting interrupted for news of Devenport's success.
After completing the Cook Strait crossing, Devenport continued to participate in long-distance events, swimming the Waitemata Harbour twice and swimming from Dunedin's St Clair to White Island. He also helped form the Marathon Swimming Federation.
Devenport, 72, now lives in Surfer's Paradise and says he swims at the beach most days, although he has no plans to jump back into Cook Strait and grab a record for oldest person to cross it.
Since Devenport first tackled the strait many more have followed.
School-age children have taken on the challenge and succeeded. People who had never swum in the sea before have completed the swim. There have been double crossings and crossings done in half the time. So what has changed? Has the strait shrunk?
Devenport said he thought the use of satellite navigational equipment now had made the crossing easier to plan, with people able to assess weather and tides better. However, he said, probably the greatest change was the way people now saw swimming the strait as an achievable goal.
"Back in those days the biggest challenge was overcoming the psychological barrier - people said it was impossible. The fact is now it's been done and, like the four minute mile and Everest, once the first went more would follow."
Philip Rush, who holds the record for the first double crossing and the fastest double crossing, now advises those seeking to attempt the crossing.
He said crossing the strait was now largely a science.
"When he [Devenport] swam it was with, sort of, the knowledge of local fishermen.
"Now we have better methods for training and better methods for swimming. There are also better ways to check weather conditions and GPS [global positioning systems] to navigate."
Rush said another aspect that might explain the change was the larger number of people attempting to cross.
"Nowadays we have seven to 10 people attempting it each year - I'm booked up to 2010. If they put in the training and the conditions are right we can usually get them across."
This weekend's 45th anniversary celebrations are being organised by the Worser Bay Surf Lifesaving Club, Devenport's club at the time of the monumental crossing.
Original plans to celebrate the 50-year anniversary were substituted for the 45-year mark, so older members of the original team that helped with Devenport's swim could attend.
Club president Ian Greenwood said 80 people would attend Saturday night's dinner, including some members of the original crossing crew.
Some had died, he said. But "seven or eight are coming - some from Australia".
* COOK STRAIT CONQUERORS
First: Barrie Devenport, North to South, November 1962, 11 hours 20 mins
First woman: Lynne Cox, North to South, February 1975, 12h 2.5m
First double crossing: Phil Rush, March 1984, North to South 7h 51m; South to North 8h 25m
Fastest: Denise Anderson, January 1986, South to North, 5h 4m
- NZPA
