Pittwater Life August 2023 Issue

Richard’s trans-Tasman
News
Earlier this year,
Narrabeen resident
Dr Richard Barnes
completed the first ever solo,
non-stop 2000-kilometre
kayak trip from Australia to
New Zealand, in 67 days. His
next adventure might take a
full year.
One assumes that you’d
have to be mad to even
attempt the trip in the
first place; but ask Richard
whether 67 days alone in a
kayak drove him slightly
crazy and he is circumspect.
“There was actually a
complete sense of freedom,”
he replies. “… completely
cut off and free from any
responsibility.
“Me and the boat were a
partnership and I’d talk to
the boat a lot of the time –
and I managed to solve every
one of the world’s problems!
The time just went.”
Richard, a mechanical
engineer by profession,
spent Christmas alone in the
Tasman Sea, although there
was also wildlife to keep
him company – some more
wanted than others.
“I saw plenty of albatross
every day and other smaller
sea birds. There were a pair
of whales one day and a few
sharks along the way.
“And I did have a satellite
phone that I’d get information
on every day and send back a
story from my day.”
He completed the crossing
on February 18.
This was his second
attempt; the first came in
2021 but he had to give up
after 75 days due to bad
weather in the form of
Cyclone Seth.
His feat makes him only
the second solo kayaker to
ever paddle “the gauntlet”
(after Scott Donaldson in
2018), and the first person
to do so solo, non-stop, and
unassisted. (Donaldson’s
crossing included a stop
at Lord Howe Island and a
FLOATING HIS DREAM:
Richard’s bold selfie
in the Tasman; and
the closest to a ham
Christmas lunch.
resupply.)
If it wasn’t mentally
too tough, then surely it
was physically very hard?
Rather like the mental
battle he mastered, Richard
is fairly laconic about his
superhuman efforts.
“It was 9 or 10 hours of
paddling every day for 67
days, so yes, it was quite
hard. But canoeing is my
thing and I’ve paddled for
40 years now. And it was
more like a walking pace, as
I wasn’t trying to break any
record times.”
When you realise quite
how big Richard’s kayak was,
however, then it just adds
weight – literally – to his
achievement.
“Yes, it’s a big kayak
– 10 metres long, by 850
12 AUGUST 2023
The Local Voice Since 1991