In Kate Camp's new poetry collection Makeshift Seasons she's often to be found in togs, just in or out of the sea. Or, as she writes in one poem, "always driving to coasts in special outfits."
Camp recently recounted how she only really learnt to swim in 2021, but has been in saltwater nearly every day since.
Camp feels a lot of women her age "are mediating their mid-life crisis" through ocean swimming. She organises group swimming events, including the '12 Bays of Christmas' and, in midwinter, the 'Nine Matariki Swims'. This, on top of her poetry, essays, a day job in comms at Te Papa, and time spent in choir The Doubtful Sounds.
Kate Camp joins RNZ Culture 101 to play 'Fast Favourites'.
She's a fan of house museums, and a long-time trustee of Janet Frame's - the writer's childhood home in Oamaru. It's open daily 2 to 4pm between September and April 30.
Speaking of homes, Kate Camp is also an advocate for the Coalition to End Women's Homelessness, recognising the particular risks women are under when they lose their homes.
A current free cultural joy is getting audiobooks from the library. A recent favourite being London Labour and the London Poor by Henry Mahew, a classic, she says of reportage from 1850s London.
