KEY POINTS:
Hopes faded for the safety of the missing transtasman kayaker Andrew McAuley after his upturned vessel was recovered off the coast of the South Island late last night with the emergency locator beacon still onboard. His life jacket was not found.
McAuley's craft was first spotted about 80km out to sea from Milford Sound at 8pm last night.
He was expected to arrive at Milford Sound at 9am today, where wife Vicki McAuley was to meet and congratulate him on becoming the first person to paddle the Tasman.
But late last night an inflatable sent by the cruise ship Clipper Odyssey picked up the Australian's kayak near the coast off Fiordland. He left Fortescue Bay, Tasmania, on January 11, a 1600km journey.
An unusual transmission on Friday night had caused alarm; not explicitly a distress call, it came in on the maritime band and was heavily distorted.
The search began, and about 8pm last night an orange kayak was spotted by a Royal New Zealand Air Force P3 Orion. The Rescue Coordination Centre in Wellington immediately diverted the Odyssey to the kayak. A helicopter, piloted by Richard Hayes of Southern Lakes Helicopters, was flown to the ship to land police and paramedics on board.
At about 11pm last night, an inflatable was sent from the ship to recover the vessel which was positively identified as McAuley's. The emergency locator beacon was still in the kayak but the life jacket was missing.
The search for McAuley will resume at 9am today.
Vicki McAuley who joined the search yesterday with her husband's father Peter, told 3 News before the discovery of the kayak that she couldn't believe he had struck trouble so close to the finish line.
"I feel that he's very happily paddling along and totally oblivious to all this. But it would have been nice to see him, sure."
"He hasn't activated his emergency beacon yet so that is at least some indication that he's okay, but that doesn't mean anything by itself."
One of the helicopter searchers, Alfie Speight, from Heliworks Queenstown, offered a possible cause for the accident. One of the other pilots had spotted a pod of whales. "And just a whale could have flipped him."
Just a sighting of a turned kayak was enough for Speight. "Oh, they've found him," he said. "Oh hell. The family were so very confident he was still paddling and they'd see him in the morning.
"It was the best day you could have looking for a needle in a haystack. It was glassy calm. Poor bastard."
On his 1600km expedition, McAuley, Australian Geographic magazine's Adventurer of the Year 2005, had encountered bad weather, numerous capsizes and attention from sharks.
His sea kayak was fitted with a cockpit cover, offering some protection from the weather, and a solar panel to power instruments and communications equipment.
