Not all teenagers were up seeing in the New Year at midnight: 17-year-old Meg McLaughlan was tucked up in bed early last night (Thursday December 31) having spent five days swimming the lengths of Lake Hāwea and much of Lake Wānaka.

Meg has approximately 18kms of Lake Wānaka left to swim today, and she hopes to arrive at the Wanaka lakefront by midday.

The Dunedin competitive swimmer was inspired to tackle the 80km swim after watching a friend swim Queen Charlotte Sound twice this time last year.

“I thought - what can I do? Something like that? - and it sort of went from there.” 

Meg swims Lake Hāwea.

She chose to raise money for the Otago Southland branch of the Cancer Society, as “cancer is something that affects most families”.

Meg has already raised almost $5,000 via her Givealittle page.

It took three days for Meg to swim the length of Lake Hāwea, including a very windy first day.

Teenager Meg McLaughlan

“Each morning I’ve been getting in the water around 6:30am,” Meg said. Her parents have been with her the whole time, with either her uncle or brother driving a support boat.

“The past couple of days have been really good and flat, like being in a pool. Being bored has been the hardest part,” Meg said.

Meg has been swimming competitively for about four years, and while she has a lot of experience in the pool she has never attempted anything like this.

As of last night, Meg was feeling “pretty tired”, and when the Wanaka App spoke to her about 7:00pm she was about to head out for another hour’s swimming to shave some distance from her last day of swimming on New Year’s Day.

She was hoping for good weather for her final day. “I haven’t really been looking at the weather - that’s mum’s job,” she said.

PHOTOS: Supplied