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Trans-Tasman rower Shaun Quincey has made it to shore in the Far North.
The Auckland rower completed his 2200 kilometre solo journey on Sunday, swimming the last 300 metres or so to make it to shore at 90 Mile Beach at about 12.35pm.
He is the first person to row solo from Australia to New Zealand and was spotted on the horizon at about 11.15am. ONE News reporter Melissa Stokes says the landing happened quite quickly after Quincey had been just a dot on the horizon for more than an hour.
There was a mad panic as his mother and brother started running into the surf.
Quincey held up a New Zealand flag and said he was delighted to be home. He said this country is the best one to land in.
A crowd of about 500 greeted Quincey, 53 days after he set off in his 7.3 metre boat Tasman Trespasser from New South Wales on January 20.
Quincey, 25, who was greeted by his girlfriend, said he was tired and hungry.
Local photographer Clive Crombie was part of the large media contingent who saw Quincey arrive on the beach after his epic journey and says it was surprising to see him looking so fit and well. He says Quincey looks impressively fit after such a huge journey, and says the rower happily tucked into a bacon sandwich on arrival.
Quincey became the second person to row the journey solo, following in the footsteps of his father Colin who completed the journey in the reverse direction in 63 days in 1977.
The epic journey was not without its challenges. Quincey's boat flipped during a ferocious storm some weeks ago, trapping him for 15 minutes and threatening his life-long ambition to complete the journey.
And the pressure was on until the end with the landing being hampered by three-metre swells.
Quincey says his fondest memory is coming face-to-face with a whale with a head the size of a Combi van.
