Aucklanders are putting their health on the line to swim at a popular central city swimming spot.
Te Auaunga - Oakley Creek waterfall on a hot summers day. Photo: RNZ/Katie Fitzgerald
Swimmers are flocking to Te Auaunga - Oakley Creek waterfall, but the area has long running issues with water quality.
One visitor told RNZ he initially was put off by the signs warning against swimming and playing in the water, but not for long.
"I came here, I saw the signs and I didn't want to swim because I was worried because I heard it was polluted, and then I came with some mates and I saw them swimming."
Another said he was not bothered.
"It's a little bit dirty, to be honest, but you know, keeping cool, and I've swam here a few times and never had a problem. So yeah, pretty fine with swimming in it."
The sign at the start of the track to the Oakley Creek waterfall. Photo: RNZ/Katie Fitzgerald
The waterfall is in the middle of the Auckland suburb of Waterview, surrounded by lush bush and housing.
Friends of Oakley Creek founding member Wendy Johns said people had been swimming in the creek for decades and issues with the water were well known.
"We don't want to spoil people's fun, but we are aware of the reality, and we know that on Auckland Council's SafeSwim website it always has a red flag that, a danger thing, do not swim here," Johns said.
Auckland Council SafeSwim programme manager Nick Vigar said the problem with Oakley Creek was that it did not give consistent safe readings.
"There are enough exceedences in that record, that it's a problem, we can't meet our normal criteria in terms of accuracy of the models. So, it is a public health risk. Definitely."
The public health risk is not huge, but there is the chance of picking up illnesses that can be transmitted in human wastewater.
Massey University Professor Nigel French said norovirus and other nasties could live in wastewater.
"We've got things like campylobacter, we have salmonella, and we have some fairly nasty E. coli, which could get into the wastewater," French said.
"Then again, if people are infected, then things like cryptosporidium and giardia, which are both parasites, could also cause illness in people exposed to that through recreational swimming."
French said those illnesses tended have similar symptoms.
"Bloody diarrhoea can be a common symptom. Abdominal pain or stomach cramps can be quite common. Nausea and vomiting in some cases, and fever can be, those are the kind of symptoms that you'd see. Many of those are quite common to all of those things that I mentioned."
Vigar had a message for those who wanted to lower their chances of getting sick from nasties - get in the sea.
"Everything dies off much faster in saltwater. It's a much safer environment and much lower risk environment."