Meet Kathleen from our award-winning swim school team

Meet Kathleen Tapuke-O'Neal, one of our award-winning swim school team.

• What is your role and how did you get started with your career?

I am the Acting Swim School Team Lead at AC Baths. I started as a swim instructor last year after moving here from the States and recently moved into the Team Lead position. I love the water and am a water baby. I grew up in a small town on a lake, much like Taupō, in Texas. I did not do any swim teaching in the States, but I was working with children in theatre. It's awesome to use those skills in a different way.

• What do you like about your role?

Managing the Swim School is like a big puzzle, and I love puzzles, to be honest. (Any other fans of NYT Connections out there?) I try to find solutions that are good for our students, our parents, our instructors, and our wider community, which can often require creative thinking.

• What would you like other people to understand about your job?

There’s a lot more moving parts than one might assume. Between our swim school classes and Contact Energy programmes in Taupō and Tūrangi, we serve between 800 and 1000 students a week. We employ over 20 swim instructors and conduct classes for students aged 6 months to adults.

There’s actually quite a bit of work that goes into making sure our students and swim instructors can meet in the pool once a week.

• What are you most proud of at Taupō District Council?

We have just been selected as one of the ‘Best Swimming Schools in Oceania for 2025’. This is a great recognition of the hard work put in by staff, teachers and pupils. Awarded by ‘Top 100 Businesses’ it is a well-deserved honour to go with gaining platinum status by Swimming NZ.

I also love the opportunity for growth within my department. I appreciate being given the chance to take on a new role within Taupō District Council within a relatively short time.

The staff at swim school and AC Baths are all fantastic and it is a pleasure getting to come to work with them every day.

• What do you get up to outside of work?

I have a background in theatre, so you might run into me at the playhouse or taking a trip to Auckland or Welly to see a show that’s on. I haven’t seen as much of New Zealand as I would like, so I'll be traveling around the country more in the coming year.