Roadside coffee vendor and former policeman Dave Robertson never expected his bucket-list run-walk-bike trip the length of New Zealand to be easy.
But he did expect something easier than the first few days, battling an "unbelievable" storm for more than three days since starting with his first steps south from Cape Reinga on Monday.
With about 200km on the clock, three nights of camps without power and hot water and a few 140km/h winds behind him, he pulled the pin on the first leg on Friday, saying: "The weather has won.
"The roads are flooded and breaking up, and the long-range forecast is for 10 days ... rain."
It wasn't any improvement on the day before, when he said: "I'm in the middle of that bloody storm. It's still pretty rough up here. It's hosing down, still blowing a gale."