'Idiot' Kiwi to jetski from London to NZ

Jeremy Burfoot (L) pictured after becoming the first man to circumnavigate New Zealand on a jetski, with Brad Burton (right). Photo / Kellie Blizzard

Kiwi adventurer Jeremy Burfoot doesn't mind when people call him an idiot for attempting to travel 32,000km from London to New Zealand by jetski.

After all, that was his reaction when he first heard the idea.

The 51-year-old airline pilot leaves London on Sunday morning and will spend up to 12 hours a day for four months astride a jetski on his way down to the southern hemisphere.

The idea came from his first officer, who suggested it as a follow-up to his record-breaking 2005 jetski journey circumnavigating New Zealand.

"I said: 'You're an idiot. What kind of a fool would do that?'," Mr Burfoot said. "He grabbed his atlas out and we were looking at it, and it looked pretty interesting."

Since then it's been mostly his wife who has been calling him an idiot, as he faces possible encounters with sharks, bad weather and pirates along the way.

But it's all for a good cause.

One of Mr Burfoot's goals is to smash the world record for riding a personal watercraft.

More importantly, he wants to raise awareness about cancer prevention, after battling skin cancer himself in the past.

"What it's about is the healthy living to prevent cancer in the first place - not going out in the sun, and eating reasonably good food, and staying healthy," Mr Burfoot said.

"But even if you do, you're not guaranteed of not getting cancer, so it's also early detection that we're talking about.

"If you get these things early, they're curable - that's the message."

Mr Burfoot will be joined on the mission by four other men as he weaves around the world's waterways, setting off from the River Thames outside London's Houses of Parliament on August 1.

The standard-size jetskis will be packed with technical equipment to document the adventure, safety gear, some high-energy food, camping accessories and "very little" personal belongings.

They have no logistics planned aside from the detailed route.

The team will head across the English Channel to Rotterdam, riding the rivers of the Rhine and Danube and out to the Black Sea.

From there they'll head to Turkey, then on to Egypt through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, which will take them to Yemen, Oman, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and down to Singapore, where they'll break the previous jetski journey record of 18,400km.

Then they'll island hop around Indonesia before moving to the top of Australia, down the east coast to Melbourne, across the Tasman to Wellington and then finally to Auckland.

Mr Burfoot expects to complete the journey towards the end of November.

One of their main logistical challenges will be refuelling the crafts along the way.

"When you get down to these Middle Eastern countries like Sudan and Eritrea, the refuelling will be by 20-litre drums, walking up to the local service station in 40 degree heat," Mr Burfoot said.

"So you're talking, to refuel all our machines, 35 x 20L drums - at least six trips with two each up to the local service station."

However, the father-of-three, who says he's "probably the fittest 51-year-old you would ever have met", is looking forward to the challenge.

"When we get to the end of it we'll go, 'Well, we've achieved something good here'," he said."

- AAP