Kolkata: Ace swimmer Bula Chowdhury has successfully crossed the Cook's Strait in New Zealand with record time among Asian women, thus leaping a step forward towards fulfilling her dream of conquering the seven seas.

Chowdhury, who also achieved the rare feat of becoming the first swimmer to swim across the Cook's Strait since 2001, crossed the 27 km distance with a timing of 9.04 hrs on Tuesday (local time), as per information received here on Wednesday.

With this, the 32-year-old swimmer has crossed six of the seven seas – the English Channel, the Strait of Gibraltar, Tirrenean Sea, Torroneous Gulf, the Catalina Channel and the Cook's Strait - and would endeavour to conquer the Palk Strait in Sri Lanka next to complete her mission.

Starting from Oahau Island in north at 7.30 am (local time), Chowdhury finished at Pearanho Island in south at 4.34 pm, braving the hard currents with the water temperature being about 15-16 degree Celsius.

"It was very hard, tough and cold. I expected to go a lot faster and complete the swim in about seven hours. But there were so many hard currents all the way," Chowdhury said in a faxed message from Wellington.

Lauding her achievement, Philip Rush, representative of the Cook's Strait authorities said, "It was really a gutsy effort. This is more remarkable in view of the fact that five people had frozen last year" while trying to cross the Strait.

Chowdhury, who had earlier become the first Asian woman to cross the Cataline Channel last year, had been trying for three years for permission from the authorities, who were reluctant "as the water is cold and weather extremely rough," she said.

PTI