Tauranga kayaker Tim Taylor added another day to his Ashburton rest stop when four metre swells were forecast for Thursday.

Tim Taylor.

The steep South Island beaches normally have only one big shore dump wave to obstruct progress towards the sea, says Tim.

'You only have to deal with it once,” says Tim, 'but at four metres they tend to break things.”

He's already experienced being dumped at the Hurunui river mouth north of Christchurch.

Tim paddled unknowing across a large bar or reef off the river mouth and got rolled by a three metre wave that reared up in front of him.

'I got mashed all the way to the beach, broke my sunnies,” says Tim.

'Everything else was tied on.”

It took him three goes to get past that wave before paddling on to Christchurch.

Tim was hoping to round Banks Peninsula in one day, but a three metre swell slowed progress, forcing an overnight stop at Akaroa.

From the Ashburton River Tim estimates he's a day's paddle from Timaru – when he gets off the beach.

Meanwhile he's staying with the family of a university friend who lives nearby.

'It's good to get a decent rest,” says Tim.

Tim set out from Tauranga on November 27, intending to become the first person to circum kayak New Zealand in a single voyage.