Bean Rock Swim, live.

Round the lighthouse in the shipping channel

An ocean swim whose turning mark is a lighthouse standing in the middle of Auckland’s busiest stretch of water.

The Bean Rock Swim starts and finishes on the beach at Mission Bay, Selwyn Domain, on Saturday 12 December 2026, as part of the New Zealand Ocean Swim Series. The long course heads out from the shoreline across the harbour to Bean Rock, rounds the lighthouse and comes back to the sand. The organiser is plain about why it is a race and not a morning swim: the rock sits in the shipping channel, with tidal movement and regular vessel traffic, and cannot safely be attempted on your own. On race day the course is patrolled by lifeguards and first-aid staff.

There are four ways in. The Full Bean is 3.4 km and starts at 08:30 with a 1 hour 50 minute cut-off, for swimmers aged 12 and over. The Half Bean is 1.7 km at 10:15 with 1 hour 10 minutes, the Quarter Bean is 800 m at 11:15 with 35 minutes, and the OceanKids races of 100 m and 200 m start at 11:35. Adults start in speed groups by pace per 100 m, and the colour of the silicone cap shows the group. December water off Mission Bay is around 19–21 °C, the organiser says.

From the beach a swimmer becomes one coloured cap among many within a few hundred metres. A phone does not hear satellites well at water level, and a broadcast that loses its fix does not freeze on Livebib: the swimmer’s position is carried forward along the course line and marked as estimated, never shown as measured. Family who are not on the sand at Mission Bay open the link the swimmer shared in a browser, with no app and no account, and see where along the route to the lighthouse they are and a finish estimate that updates as the swim goes.