Stormy seas stopped Tim's first attempt to paddle from Preservation Inlet to Dusky Sound on Sunday.

His spot tracker record shows Tim rounded Cape Providence and headed north towards Dusky Sound before turning back at 8.40am.

Tim Taylor.

He then paddled up Chalky inlet for lunch at Little Island before turning back to the Passage Islands, and Chalky Island before crossing the western passage to return to Landing Bay where he stayed Saturday night and where he is today.

'He went on a little explore,” says his mum Lyn Taylor.

'He left there intending to go north, but it just got too rough and he had to turn around, so he went for a little explore and a fish – that took him all day.”

He wasn't able to learn if he caught anything, and believes the area's notorious sand flies might have kept Tim off the beach.

'We didn't actually speak to him because he was only on satellite phone – it's very awkward down there.

'He hasn't gone out today, there are storm warnings again today, but the outlook is pretty good for tomorrow, so he might get away.”

Tim's support crew was in Rotorua at the Blue Lakes on the weekend watching Tim's cousin Lisa Carrington clean up at the NZ K1 Nationals.

'It's a different kind of paddling to what Tim does,” says Lyn.

Tim is working on becoming the first person to kayak round New Zealand in a single voyage. He left Tauranga on November 27 and expected to spend most of the summer on the 5000km journey.