Top spots to take a dip around Aotearoa

If you could choose anywhere in Aotearoa to have a swim, where would you pick? For Nicola McCloy, author of Jump In - An Insider's Guide to New Zealand's Best Beaches, Lakes, Rivers, Pools and Hot Springs, the answer is easy.

Hands down her absolute favourite place to go for a swim is Te Hāwere-a-Maki - Goat Island, McCloy told RNZ's Summer Times.

Located within Cape Rodney-Okakari Point Marine Reserve, about 80km north of Auckland, Goat Island is thought to have been the first gazetted marine reserve in the world, she says.

“It all came about because Auckland University set up a marine laboratory up there in the 1960s and recognised that, because there's so many different marine environments within that small area, recognised the degradation that was happening and decided that the best way to study the area was to protect it,” she says.

Consequently the swimming is exceptional, she says.

“One swim we did there, we had to stand and wait because there was this massive pod of dolphins going through.

“They were just mucking around in front of us, so we just got out in the water. One of the best memories of my life was this little baby dolphin just swimming underneath me.”

Goat Island is indicative of what might be elsewhere, she says.

“The thing about Goat Island is you can go there, then you go and swim at your local beach and you'll see the difference in the potential of what could be.”

At the other end of the country, the magnificent stretch of sand that is Oreti Beach in Southland holds special childhood memories, she says.

The beach, which featured in a scene from the The World's Fastest Indian movie is wild, depending on what the weather's doing and is one for strong swimmers, she says.

“But on a long, hot Southland summer day, which will go until 10.30 at night, there is nowhere like it.”

One of her favourite lakes for swimming is relatively unknown, she says.

“Around Rotorua, people know Lake Tarawera, Tikitapu and the Blue Lake, but people don't know Lake Okataina.

“And I think that's criminal, because it is absolutely magic.”

The drive there is also one of her favourites.

“You go down this road, and you're just absolutely cloaked in native bush.

“And you just have that sense that you're going somewhere really cool.”

Apart from a lodge at one end, but there's no built environment, around Lake Okataina, she says.

“So you're completely out and just in nature. The water's that lovely. It's just got a real softness to it. It's so lovely.”

Lake Rua in Christchutch, on the other hand is slap bang in the city, she says.

“Some friends of mine told me about it. They said, 'you've got to go to Lake Rua'.

"They told me where it was. And I'm driving through the industrial outskirts of Christchurch near the airport. And I'm thinking, where the hell are they sending me?”

Converted from old gravel pits, Lake Rua is is now purely for recreational swimming and kayaking, she says.

“There's a lovely pontoon for doing bombs off. There are little picnic areas all around it. It was just magic.”

She is also “100 percent obsessed” with Motueka Saltwater Baths.

The complex was built in the 1930s as part of the Sunlight League and survives today because the local community rallied to save it, she says.

“In 1990, the council were going to demolish it. A group of local volunteers came together and said, 'absolutely not' [and] they refurbished it.

"Again, same thing happened in the early 2000s... A huge petition to stop it from being closed.”

The baths are a real “testament” to people who fought to save it, she says.

“And it's completely free. You just rock up, have a swim, and it's just magnificent.”