Auckland's finally had a glimpse of summer on Monday, making for the perfect day for a swim at the beach.
But many were contaminated by faecal bacteria due to heavy rain over the weekend which caused a number of warnings across the region advising locals not to take a plunge.
Finally! After days of rain, a bluebird day for Auckland. It might have looked like the perfect conditions for a dip at Mission Bay - but it's not due to a very high risk the water's contaminated with poo.
"I didn't see a sign or anything like that," one person said.
"No I didn't check the Safeswim website," another said.
"I think it's appalling we aren't able to swim," a third added.
After big rainfalls, Auckland's stormwater and wastewater drains overflow. This was Sunday's Safeswim map of Auckland.
The red pins mean swimming isn't advised. The black pins mean do not swim. Monday's map was slightly improved but still not great.
Safeswim programme manager at Auckland Council Nick Vigar accepted it isn't good enough.
"No. Everyone is trying to make sure this doesn't happen down the line but there's some big infrastructure investment between now and then. That's the reality it doesn't happen overnight," he told Newshub.
In other words, our ageing infrastructure is being repaired but will take years.
"We are currently in our 20-year investment plan. We are going to be spending $11 billion on the wastewater," said David Moore, Watercare's manager of its network improvement programme.
The big one is the Central Interceptor which will reduce wastewater overflows. It's due to be finished in 2027.
"We also have other projects which are the safe networks, where we are going house-to-house to make sure that properties are connected properly," Moore said.
Auckland isn't alone. Other regions too suffer from old pipe networks. Lawa.org.nz is a nationwide picture of the state of our beaches, lakes and rivers. It's websites like these people are being advised to check before they dip.
"Even on a beautiful sunny day… check it because there are a lot of unpredictable things which potentially can get put up there," Vigar said.
And there are things you can do to help including only flushing the three P's - pee, poo and paper.
"Our system gets overloaded with blockages and then things stick and we then do get contamination," Moore said.
Also keep cooking fats out of the network and make sure your stormwater and gully traps are correct to ensure our beaches are as clean as they can be.
