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National youth and RS:X windsurfing champion Alex Hart has successfully completed his fundraising bid hiking up and down Mauao for 24-hours.

An impressive 25 laps in 24 hours were completed, totalling over 5500 vertical metres.

See video at the bottom of the story. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

To put that in perspective, Mount Ruapehu is 2797m and Mount Cook being 3724m.

The wet weather Mount Maunganui saw this weekend meant conditions were tougher than expected.

Alex spoke to SunLive after his 22nd lap with 22 hours down and two hours to go.

'My mind is all right, it's just my legs and around my knees that are pretty sore and my feet.

'The rains not very nice, it's not ideal. I'm just walking now, I'm too tired to run so it's not dangerous, if it was wet and I was running I would be more hesitant. I probably went a bit hard at the start.

His first lap was 18-minutes and slowest was around 40-minutes.

Alex had around six hours sleep during the climb, a head torch as a light during the night and came across a 'surprising amount of drunk people”.

'I actually went home at midnight to get a few hours sleep because I had hit a mental wall”

He began at 5pm on Saturdayand finished at 5pm on Sunday.

Alex's efforts were to help raise money for his old training partner and current female RS:X windsurfing champion Natalia Kosinska meet Yachting New Zealand's standards and funding.

'I just wanted to help her out as she's been trying to balance work and training,” says Alex.

Since completing the challenge, he says Natalia is 'really happy about it, she's really grateful and thankful”.

Alex was joined by family and friends who supported him throughout the 24-hours and is now recovering.

'I'm feeling good. The recovery is going well, my legs aren't hurting as bad as I thought they'd be.”

To donate, visit www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/nataliasolympicwindsurfingselectioncampaign