Tim Taylor's been discovering sandfly madness – driven into his tent in Preservation Inlet to escape the hordes of small biters that are the scourge of Fiordland.

'He's very stuck down there,” says Lyn Taylor.

'He was stuck in his tent. The sandflies down there are horrendous. Between Brent from back country cuisine and Meri Leask they are really looking after him and doing a fantastic job.”

Meri Leask is the Bluff Fishermen's radio operator. She's been on the job for 25 years and is well known locally.

'It's like she's New Zealand famous – she knows that area and every fisherman and every boat that's within cooee of southland,” says Lyn.

'People up here know of her.

'She's been doing an awful lot for Tim, and helping him with the weather and saying when to go and when not to, and what boats are in the area. It's been very reassuring for us. She's been very good as has Brent at Back Country Cuisine.

They got Tim onto a yacht for the night for relief for time out from the tent and sandflies.

'Yesterday he paddled to the other side of the sound where he got onto a yacht for the night with some people they knew, so he wasn't on his own. I think it was catching up a bit with him there.”

More food from Back Country Cuisine was being brought to Tim today from Bluff by a fishing boat.

The weather looks like lifting for a couple of days, giving Tim the opportunity to try for Milford Sound up the coast.

'It's frustrating for him,” says Lyn. 'He just wants to get moving and he can't.”

Tim set out from Tauranga on November 27 intending to become the first person to kayak round New Zealand in a single voyage. That was 89 days ago, but only 52 or those days have been paddling. Apart from rest days, Tim has also spent a lot of time waiting for bad weather and rough seas to pass by.

At Preservation Inlet Tim is about 200-250km from a halfway point in the estimated 5500km voyage.