Yachtsmen to retrace Cook’s N.Z. voyage

Press, 3 November 1984, Page 8

Yachtsmen to retrace Cook’s N.Z. voyage

PA Auckland Two Aucklanders will set sail in cruising catamarans tomorrow to recreate Captain James Cook’s voyage round New Zealand 215 years ago.

Brian Holloway and Mark Tresham will leave Waitemata Harbour in their 11 and 13-metre “cats” on a voyage which is expected to last six months. The two men, who will be accompanied by friends and experienced yachtsmen, plan to sail as close as possible to the course taken by Cook’s ship, the Endeavour, in 1769.

From Auckland, they will sail up the eastern side of the northern peninsula,

round North Cape, down the west coast of the North Island and through Cook Strait, down the east coast of the South Island, up the West Coast, through Cook Strait again and up the East Coast to Auckland.

Mr Holloway today said he and Mr Tresham had been working 15 hours a day for the last few weeks to get their boats ready. “I am absolutely exhausted but I am extremely happy about the preparation and am feeling good about the trip,” he said. Mr Holloway said the voyage was the fulfilment of a long-time dream. “I,have thought about it for years and, when Mark and I were talking about it

six months ago, we both said ‘why not?’. We shook hands and here we are. It will be the adventure of a lifetime,” said Mr Holloway. Besides following the course of history, the two men will have other matters to keep them occupied.

The Weather Office has asked them to make tests at various intervals and two university students have requested them to follow the movements of rare Hector dolphins off the Kaikoura coast.

On the last leg of the voyage from Napier to Auckland, they will be joined by two American friends who will spend their honeymoon on the catamarans.