There were incredible scenes in Campbell's Bay on Wednesday night when hundreds turned up to witness a New Zealand swimming record break.
They were there to see thirty-three-year-old Aucklander Jono Ridler finish his 100km swim in open water.
No wetsuit. No assistance.
It's the longest continuous solo-unassisted open-water swim ever recorded in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Jono left Aotea Great Barrier Island at 10am on Tuesday. Thirty-three hours and 13 minutes later he reached Campbell's Bay on Auckland's North Shore.
"I'm actually from Great Barrier," one onlooker told Newshub. "I just thought well I'm mad not to come and see this guy cause what an achievement you know."
His support team fed him liquid energy boosters, donuts and meatballs.. along the way and somehow, he made it back in one piece.
The rain was pounding down. Talking to his support crews, while Jono recovered in the ambulance, they told Newshub - they couldn't be happier.
"We're elated," said Live Ocean Foundation Program Director Andrew Judge. "We're so relieved that Jono's safe. It's a superhuman feat. It's just incredible what he's done. This is an epic feat of human endurance for the ages."
Hundreds came to show their support as we warmed up in the ambulance with a beanie.
Many were there to support his cause.
"Jono's done this because he wants to draw attention to the state of the Hauraki gulf," said Judge. "It's a really special place. He felt he had the capacity to step up and bring attention to the state of it and what needs to be done. So Jono's delivered for the Gulf and now it's time for the Government to step up and deliver."
The Gulf supports 45 percent fewer fish than it did in 1925.
In Auckland, half of all monitored beaches have exceeded contamination levels at least once and 882,000 metric tonnes of rubbish was removed from the coast between 2014 and 2016 by the Watercare Harbour Clean-Up Trust.
"So often you go to go for a swim and it's red or black and theoretically you shouldn't go for a swim," said one onlooker.
The conditions at the end of Ridler's swim were more than tough with two metre swells and 30 knot winds.
He and the team are now hoping - his herculean efforts will be matched by efforts - to clean up the Gulf.
