6 Apr 2014

Grandmother rows Cook Strait

4:09 pm on 6 April 2014

A 60-year-old grandmother from Rotorua has become the first person to make a double crossing of Cook Strait in a rowing skiff.

Pam Dickson performed the feat in seven hours and 51 minutes last Friday rowing from Makara west of Wellington to the South Island's Perano Head and back to Oteranga bay on Wellington's south coast.

Ms Dickson says during the double crossing she was capsized four times by large waves and had to fight against a tide that threatened to sweep her out to sea.

The grandmother of ten children only took up rowing 11 months ago and is also the oldest woman to have swam Cook Strait at age 55.

Ms Dickson says she hopes she's an inspiration to her children and grandchildren and describes herself as a 'crazy nana'.