Adventurer remembered with South Island journey

Endurance athletes Steve Gurney and Steve Moffatt begin a journey across the South Island today retracing the path adventurer George Park took nearly 120 years ago.

With a wooden kayak in tow, Park - Moffatt's great-great-uncle - left from Jacksons, inland from Hokitika, in 1889 and spent 13 days travelling 330km over land and rivers to Sumner Beach in Christchurch.

Gurney will use modern equipment for the journey while Moffatt will replicate the earlier trip with a heavy wooden kayak, paraffin-soaked cotton wet-weather gear, and food of the 1890s.