KEY POINTS:
Two Australian adventurers attempting a record-setting kayak across the Tasman Sea are battling fatigue and mental exhaustion as they enter the final leg of their journey.
Nearly two months after setting out from the coast of New South Wales 2200km away, James Castrission, 25, and Justin Jones, 24, were yesterday just 170km from New Plymouth.
If they reach New Plymouth by Saturday as expected, the duo will become the first to kayak across the Tasman.
Australian Andrew McAuley died on a similar mission. Mr McAuley, 39, foundered as he slept last February 9 while within 65km of Milford Sound. His body was never found.
The pair believe travelling together in a custom-designed double kayak gives them better safety, but the journey remains arduous.
In a podcast on Monday, Mr Jones said they were losing the strength in their legs and their mental focus was slipping.
"We'll get our east and west mixed up now, and we'll talk about things and can't remember numbers we were talking about just an hour ago."
Adverse head winds had "closed out" their original destination, Waitakere's Cornwallis Beach.
"We're just getting worn down slowly out here - it's really the daily grind. We're busting out 30, 40, 50km a day and at the moment, it's just bleak weather. We're getting rained on a bit ... you can't actually see a horizon, there's just cloud everywhere. It's just rolling into the seas.
"We're still pumped about this trip and we're going to get it done, but we're just grinding out these last kilometres out there."
The pair left Forster, 300km north of Sydney, on November 13, intending to arrive in Auckland by Christmas.
But strong ocean currents and persistent headwinds have already added 800km to their journey, and forced the detour to New Plymouth.
Their electric desalination pump and cabin bilge pump failed halfway through the expedition - taking even more valuable time away from a gruelling 15-hour daily paddle regimen to operate the manual pump.
Spokesman for the duo, Tom Mitchell, said although they were so close to the end, they were not yet out of danger.
