Two Whanganui girls have ticked rowing 200 miles in 52 hours across the Mediterranean Sea off their bucket list - and they have the hands to prove it.
Sisters Kate and Harriet Austin took part in the biannual NOMAN Is An Island charity event to raise money for HPV cancer sufferers.
The sisters - in a crew of four and rowing against three other boats - pulled away from Ibiza's sunny shores on Sunday to face the choppy weather conditions and battle their way to Barcelona on the Spanish mainland.
On Thursday, they collapsed at the finish line taking out second place and beating one all-male crew and another all-female crew.
The girls' father, Richard Austin, said it was the hardest challenge they had ever done.
"Kate said she got not one dose of sleep and Harriet got some - although Kate said Harriet got enough," Mr Austin said.
Charity organisation, NOMAN Is An Island, started the biennial event in 2013 to raise awareness about the highly contagious virus, Human Papillomavirus (HPV), that lives in the skin.
Making up 5 per cent of all cancer cases worldwide, HPV is known to cause cervical, vaginal and vulvar cancers.
But it is increasingly being acknowledged as a cause of specific cancers which affect many other body parts including anal, penile, and head and neck cancers.