Kayaker Tim Taylor is at 4pm today closing in on the Mainland again after setting out on the Foveaux Strait crossing at 11am.

He started at Christmas Village Bay earlier today, taking at break mid morning at the mouth of the Yankee River near Black Rock Point at Stewart Island's north end.

Tim Taylor.

He set out across Foveaux Strait at about 11am heading due north, crossing just east of Centre Island, with a landfall looking likely at Kawakaputa Bay, west of Riverton.

Tim's paddle around Stewart Island forced him to sit on a beach for four days while weather systems blew through.

Tim's now heading uphill to North Cape, via Fiordland and the West Coast.

His mission is to return to Tauranga before winter as the first person to kayak around New Zealand in a single voyage. He departed from Tauranga on November 27.