There was no major New Year's celebration for Tauranga kayaker Tim Taylor when he landed on Rarangi beach on Friday night in his bid to circumnavigate the country solo in a kayak.
Mr Taylor, aged 24, arrived on Rarangi beach about 8.30pm after a difficult crossing of the Cook Strait in which his rudder broke part way through, adding about three times as much work and making it difficult for him to paddle straight.
He was met by his parents, Lyn and Paul, and family friends, who constantly monitor his progress with a GPS tracking system.
Mrs Taylor said she had not felt worried about her son until Friday because he had been hugging the coast on his way south from Tauranga.
Making the Cook Strait crossing had an element of the unknown, she said.
Mr Taylor, a trained viticulturist who worked in Blenheim for seven months at Cloudy Bay winery, said New Year's Eve was just another night and he set out again on Saturday morning heading towards Kaikoura, once he had fixed the rudder.
He pulled in to the coast near the Awatere River mouth on Saturday night and yesterday rounded Cape Campbell and pulled in along the coast near Tirohanga. He set out again shortly before 6am today and by 8am was well on the way to Clarence.
Mr Taylor's departure from Wellington on Friday morning was delayed because of rough weather in Cook Strait. He finally left Sinclair Point about 10.20am amid a drama in which Search and Rescue were looking for three men whose boat had capsized in the strait.
"That was a bad omen type thing," he said when he had reached the Marlborough coast.
The men were eventually found alive.
Mr Taylor, who took a year off work to train and prepare for the trip, contemplated spending the night at Fighting Bay in the Marlborough Sounds before making the final push to Rarangi, but said he was out of food.
He was delayed by a day in Wellington because of bad weather and ate the day's allocation of freeze-dried food he packed for the trip across the strait, he said.
Landing in the South Island was the end of the first leg of his trip after leaving Tauranga on November 27; the next leg was from the top of the south to Invercargill.
Although he was about 15 days behind schedule, Mr Taylor was still aiming to complete his continuous journey by April.
His kayak was "off the shelf," which showed people that anyone could make a similar trip, he said.
Kayaking on his own was a "pretty big mental game", he said.
"I know I've got the fitness to make the distance; it's what's going on in your head that's the barrier," he said.
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