Tim Taylor is kayaking around North Cape today, the third in the trio of capes across the top of the North Island.

On Monday, Tim rounded Cape Maria Van Dieman and Cape Reinga, overnighting on the eastern side of Spirits Bay near the vehicle access.

Tim Taylor. Photo: Grant Dyson.

He set out at about 7am today rounding Hooper Point and paddling towards Tom Bowling Bay before turning south.

Tim resumed his attempt to kayak round the country on Sunday at Ahipara, where he was forced to abandon the paddling last autumn when it became apparent he was not going to be able to get past the Ninety Mile Beach and the three capes across the island's northern tip.

The swell forecasts for the area today are for flat seas with shorebreaks of less than one metre.

Tim's mum, Lyn Taylor, is shore support for the cape rounding stage.

She says hundreds of tourists watched and took photos of Tim as he paddled past Cape Reinga on Tuesday.

'They were lined up there, there were hundreds of cameras going,” says Lyn.

'We had all the tourist bus people all taking photos and asking, ‘What's he doing that for?'

'I got all the questions.”

'I watched him, I took a million photos even though it's quite a long way down. He and I camped at Spirits Bay for the night, he got there at about 3.15pm. He was one happy boy.”

When Lyn left the cape to rendezvous with Tim there were six tourist buses at the cape plus a number of campervans and other vehicles.

'A lot of people meet up there and do tramps and things, so there's a lot going on,” says Lyn.

Tim has about 700km to paddle to complete the round New Zealand kayak at Tauranga, which he hopes to achieve in about two weeks.

He is in the process of completing his mission of kayaking around New Zealand, which he set out from Tauranga to accomplish on November 27, 2010.

He encountered a summer of storms which resulted in him sitting out half the seven months of paddling involved while waiting for bad weather to abate.

In the end, the weather put paid to his intention of completing the circum kayak in one year, forcing a break at Ahipara in June 2011 as winter closed in.