Sydney - Four Australians finished rowing across the Tasman from New Zealand on Sunday after a month at sea and in good time to see the traditional New Year's Eve fireworks display in Sydney Harbour. Favourable winds gave Steven Gates, Andrew Johnson, Kerry Tozer and Sally Macready a dream run after they left Auckland on November 29 for their 2,000-kilometre journey.
They said the last day was the worst, but they were spurred on by the prospect of the fireworks.
"We were beyond the point of exhaustion, we really were," Gates told reporters when the two men and two women made landfall. "We pushed that envelope to its absolute limit and to hit the heads this morning at four o'clock and to know that this was all going to be over really soon was just the most powerful feeling."
Macready said standing up after 31 days sitting down was a pleasure.
"The legs aren't feeling too bad," she said. "It's just after being at sea for that long, it's like you are very drunk."
The foursome received a congratulatory message from two Australian kayakers who are trying to cross the Tasman in the other direction.
Justin Jones and James Castrission have had the harder time of it because the winds that favoured the rowers were in the faces of the kayakers. Adverse currents have already added 1,000 kilometres to their intended journey of 2,200 kilometres.
They hoped to make the crossing in less than 50 days, arriving around Christmas but their arrival time has stretched out to mid-January.
"We have been in touch with them a bit and every day found out how they are going and we went within 100 kilometres of them at one stage crossing paths," Macready said. "It'll be nice to hear that they are safe and sound and have made it."
The only person to have mastered the Tasman solo is New Zealand rower Colin Quincy who covered the distance in 67 days in 1976. Earlier this year solo kayaker Andrew McAuley died in his attempt to paddle from Australia to New Zealand. The Australian's death came as he was just a day short of completing the 1,600-kilometre route he followed.
McAuley's family and friends were in New Zealand ready to welcome him and he was in sight of land when he was lost. His partially submerged craft was retrieved from the ocean, but his body was never found.
