Tauranga's Tim Taylor is hoping to complete his marathon circumnavigation of New Zealand by kayak today.

The plan is for him to arrive at the Wairoa bridge later today where family, friends and supporters will be on hand with champagne.

Tim Taylor.

'We've Facebooked everyone we know; we've put it on his website,” says Lyn Taylor.

'Unfortunately most of his sponsors are not Tauranga-based – we are just making it casual, fun for everyone who might like to see him.”
Where the celebrations go from there depend on Tim, says Lyn.
'We'll see what he wants, see how stuffed he is. I would say we would be down at the river for some time,” says Lyn.
Tim's expected to take the Tauranga entrance, because that's where he set out from when he began his solo circumkayak of New Zealand on November 27, 2010.
'A friend of ours will be out on a boat, he saw Tim out and promised he would be there for his return,” says Lyn.
It is a 10km paddle up the harbour with low tide at Tauranga about 6.19pm. The boat is expected to escort Tim up to near Fergusson Park.
'I don't know what the kayaking community have arranged, but we will be down at the river,” says Lyn.
Tim was on the water at Tairua shortly after 6.30am today. This morning he was hoping to complete the 85km leg down the Coromandel coast by nightfall.
Once again, he's paddling against a closing weather window.

If he doesn't complete the voyage today he faces the prospect of waiting out bad weather tantalisingly close to home.
'He texted me last night ‘weather not perfect, but give it my best',” says Lyn.

'So if he has to pull in, he has to – I think he's sort of aware of that.”
The MetService marine forecast says Tim's tail wind today is going to strengthen as the day goes on, rising to 20 knots and gusting to 30 tonight.
The outlook for Thursday is for a northwest wind at 30 knots, changing to southwest 30 knots by afternoon, with rain clearing.

The wind eases Friday the picks up again for Saturday.

All going well, Tim's expected to be paddling up the Wairoa River between 5pm and 7pm, and is planning to finish at the landing beside the Wairoa River bridge.
Tim's progress can be followed on his Spot Tracker on his website nzkayaker.com