Canoe pair to take on night time endurance race

Mark Stoneman and Bruce Baldwin off to Hawkesbury Canoe Classic in New South Wales.

A pair of Whanganui paddlers are a bit in the dark as to how their next adventure will pan out.

Mark Stoneman and Bruce Baldwin are heading to New South Wales this week where they are taking part in the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic.

The 111km journey along the Hawkesbury river, which comes out on the Sydney Harbour, begins on Saturday evening and is raced through the night with paddlers expected to arrive around sunrise.

"We haven't actually paddled at night yet," Stoneman said. "We figure it's just like shutting your eyes so we'll go from there."

No lights are allowed on the boat so paddlers will be hoping the forecast full moon is visible.

"It's a bit of an issue. I tried in the other night just lying in bed with my eyes shut and it was pretty hard actually."

About 600 paddlers take part in the event which Stoneman and Baldwin were introduced to when talking to an Australian crew at the World Masters Games in Auckland earlier this year.

"We said 'oh, yeah'. And the more we drank, the more we said 'yes'."

Temperatures are forecast to be 24 degrees overnight and they have been warned about various bugs and animals.

"They said 'wear booties, there's lots of things that bite here'. So that's another change," Stoneman said.

"It has a little bit of fear factor involved in that. We figure it's part of the experience."

Baldwin said they had been preparing with 23-30km training paddles and may be going in "a wee bit underdone".

There are four checkpoints along the way which will allow the pair to break the trip up.

"We thought we'd get out at those check-ins, stretch the legs, have a big feed and carry on," Stoneman said.

"Mentally, we're only doing four lots of 30km. Really it's like paddling to Mosquito Point and back four times. You just to break it down."