Jetski mission from London to NZ

Jeremy Burfoot. Photo / Supplied.

New Zealander Jeremy Burfoot will straddle a jetski for up to 12 hours a day for four months as he makes his way on the watercraft from London to New Zealand.

The 51-year-old airline pilot, who has been riding jetskis for about a decade, is tackling the 32,000-kilometre journey in an attempt to smash the world record for riding a personal watercraft.

He will be joined on the mission by four other men - two who will accompany him the entire way - 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 sized 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 details route.

"We're going to try and find at least a beach (to stay) somewhere every night," said Mr Burfoot, who shares his time between Sydney and Auckland.

The team who range in age from 22 to 51 and include an Irish man and a Croatian, will head across the English Channel, up The Rhine River to Germany, through Austria and down a canal that meets with the Danube River which will take them all the way to the Black Sea.

From there they'll head to Turkey.

They'll then head on to Egypt through the Suez Canal and on to 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 18,400 kilometres.

Then they'll island hop around Indonesia before moving to the top of Australia - where they hope to be by the end of October.

They'll skim the east coast of Oz, down to Melbourne, head across the Tasman to Wellington and up the east coast of the North Island to their final destination - Auckland.

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

He's been spending about 12 hours a week doing cycling and weight training in preparation for the journey that's costing about $700,000 - some donated funds but a "fair bit" his own money.

This will be Mr Burfoot's second jetski mission; in 2005 he became the only person to circumnavigate New Zealand on the watercraft, taking 23 days to complete the 5000km journey.

Both jetski journeys intend to try and raise awareness about the dangers of skin cancer and how to prevent it.

- AAP