"I've got a little 24-foot keel boat that I sail around on calm waters on the weekend, but I'd never been out on the blue water," he told the Weekend Herald aboard the boat yesterday.
"I've also done an awful lot of sailing in the lounge, watching videos and DVDs on Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Sir Peter Blake, Grant Dalton ... I've always been in awe of what they've done."
When he came across an advertisement about the race in Yachting World magazine, he turned to his wife.
"Jeanie said, why don't you apply for it? Well ... I was in boots and all.
"She ... encouraged me to do it, but at the same time thought I was too old and they wouldn't accept me anyway."
His family were left amazed when he was invited, throwing Mr Tooley into a tough two-year training regime of gym visits and sailing and navigation classes.
His adventure had barely begun when, three days from leaving the Western Australia city of Geraldton, he had a "disagreement with the sea". "Well it might have been a bit more than a disagreement, come to think of it - a wave picked me up and pushed me into the pushpit, which left me with a few bruises and took a piece of my arm off."
Moved to "light duties" since the episode, Mr Tooley made it across the rest of the Southern Ocean without further mishap.
Seeing the coast of the South Island loom into view, he said he began to realise what he'd achieved.
"As the clouds began to come up around the Catlins area, you could see a top layer of white along the country. The first thing I thought was just, land of the long white cloud. I've come into New Zealand from the air many times, but rolling up to it from the Southern Ocean, that was something else, now that was fantastic."
As the yacht sailed past Mayor Island off the Tauranga coast, Mr Tooley sat on the side-deck, "having a private moment".
"I guess I was just contemplating what I've done ... that I'd done every goal I'd set out to achieve, and I had a few tears in the eyes, you could say."
Mrs Tooley was just as proud.
"I've had a talk to her since, which was fantastic ... She was a little bit overcome by it all, too."
It won't be until after Christmas that he returns home to Auckland, after completing the 2204km, Tauranga to Gold Coast second half of the leg which starts next Sunday.
"But that's okay. Because when you've experienced what I've seen - the scenery, being up close to whales, seals - I wouldn't swap my seat for anything.
"If anybody else out there is retired, at a loose end and is keen to fulfil their dreams, don't think about. Just do it.
He quoted Jesse Martin, who sailed around the world before he was 20: "The tragedy is the person who wants to do it at 80, and doesn't'."
