Sydney - Four Australians rowing across the Tasman Sea from New Zealand are hoping to reach Sydney Harbour in time to see the traditional New Year's Eve fireworks display, news reports said on Friday.
Steven Gates, Andrew Johnson, Kerry Tozer and Sally Macready left Auckland on November 29 for their 2 000km journey. Weather conditions for the foursome were so good that they reached the halfway point in just 15 days. Just 370km from Sydney, they are expecting to row through the heads of the harbour on New Year's Day or January 2.
Travelling in the opposite direction are Australian kayakers Justin Jones and James Castrission. The Sydney pair has had the much harder time of it, battling heavy seas and adverse currents that have already added 1 000km to their intended journey of 2 200km.
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Jones and Castrission hoped to make the crossing in less than 50 days, arriving around Christmas. Their expectation now is that they will make landfall on January 12.
"Everything that's held our boys back has given the other team the advantage to keep paddling hard to make it there before them," a spokesman for the pair said. "And the more people you have, the less prestigious it is."
The only person to have rowed the Tasman solo is New Zealander Colin Quincy. He covered the distance in 67 days in 1976.
Solo kayaker Andrew McAuley died in his attempt to paddle from Australia to New Zealand in January.
The most perverse aspect of the Australian's death was that it came perhaps just a day short of completing the 1 600km route he followed. His family and friends were in New Zealand ready to welcome him.
It would have taken him a month, which is what he expected. He disappeared after sending out a garbled distress signal only about 50 kilometres from his destination. His partially submerged craft was retrieved from the ocean, but his body was never found. - Sapa-dpa
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