First published on 12 August 2024 on Newsline

When 70-year-old Barb Henderson moved to Christchurch a year ago to be closer to family, she wasn’t planning on becoming the city’s oldest lifeguard.

But a lifelong love of swimming and being near water led the retired nurse back into the workforce, and a part-time job working for Christchurch City Council’s Aquatic’s team as a lifeguard.  

“When I came here from Manganui in the far north, I hadn’t worked for 13 years! I knew hardly anyone and I’m not really a club person so I took up swimming again. I was training three or four times a week at Jellie Park and then one of the guys I swim with suggested I become a lifeguard and I thought, wow, that’d be good.  So, I went through the training programme and got in!”

Now she dons her yellow lifeguard top two days a week and can be spotted poolside at Graham Condon Pool with walkie-talkie in hand and wearing her signature red and yellow earrings.

“I’m working with the most amazing people here. I enjoy coming to work for the socialisation, and it’s a really important job to watch people and make sure they’re safe in the pool. I leave at the end of the day feeling really good.”

It takes concentration and physical fitness to be a lifeguard.

“Anything can happen: people might have diabetic problems, asthma, heart problems, if they stay in the spa pool too long they can faint, hit their head. And you’ve got to be so careful watching children that they don’t get too boisterous and hit their heads on the side of the pool or lose a child under the blow-up toys. You’ve got to have eyes everywhere.”

She says while she might get the occasional sidelong glance the public don’t treat her differently to any of the other lifeguards. “You do need to have a quiet word with people at times,” but she says people overall are very respectful.

Barb was a competitive swimmer from a young age. As a 16-year-old she held the national record for 100m backstroke, and she also represented New Zealand in water polo. “Swimming’s what I do. Some people garden or bake – I swim. Being around water makes me feel good – it’s cathartic.”

Now she enjoys working alongside people as young as 16 at Graham Condon, “and because I’m a swimmer, I can keep up with them,” she laughs.

Most mornings Barb is up early, keeping fit by training with her team at Jellie Park. They're all good swimmers aged between 40-74 but she says it’s never too serious: “We like to swim hard and play hard. We talk and laugh all the time.” It makes for an early start before her 5am-1.30pm shift on Fridays, but she’s an early morning person anyway.

“You’ve got to have a challenge in life, you’ve got to have a goal and for me working here has been a good goal. You’ve got to keep on growing. I’m going to Fiji in May next year with a team to do ocean swims over there and I’m really excited about that.”

Visit our website to find out more about joining the Aquatics team at Christchurch City Council.