KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - A team of four rowers has set foot on Australian soil after completing the first trans Tasman row in 31 days.
Steven Gates, Andrew Johnson, Kerry Tozer and surfboat champion Sally Macready set out on November 29 from Hokianga Harbour, north of Auckland.
They arrived to
cheers from wellwishers at Sydney's Neutral Bay at 8.15am (10.15am NZT) after clearing customs at Watsons Bay earlier.
The team members appeared fit and healthy as they were reunited with family and friends.
Gates described the feeling of entering Sydney harbour as "absolute euphoria".
"We were beyond the point of exhaustion, we really were," Gates told reporters.
"We pushed that envelope to its absolute limit and to hit the heads this morning at four o'clock and to know that this was all going to be over really soon was just the most powerful feeling."
Macready was greeted by her students from Loreto Normanhurst and said she was looking forward to having a shower.
"We were pretty confident the whole way, we had ups and downs but we were pretty confident," she said.
"I can't wait to have a nice long shower."
Macready was unsteady on her feet as she spoke to the media and thanked more than 40 spectators who welcomed the team.
"My legs aren't feeling too bad, it's just after being at sea for that long I've sort of got off and it's like you're very drunk, so I find it hard to be balanced at the moment so it's almost like when we were seasick on the first few days."
She said the main aim of the trip was to cross the Tasman sea safely.
"For us it was really just to get across, but it's a bonus always to get a record."
The crew received a congratulatory message from two Australian kayakers who have been delayed by bad weather in their attempt to kayak from Australia to New Zealand.
"We've been in touch with them a bit and every day found out how they're going and we went within 100km of them at one stage crossing paths," Macready said.
"It will be nice to hear that they're safe and sound and have made it."
Gates said the four rowers battled severe weather, encountered sharks, whales and dolphins and narrowly avoided a collision with a ship.
"There were some really nasty storms and some really lucky incidents with ships where they hadn't seen us," he said.
"They were coming for us and if it wasn't for Sal seeing them, identifying them coming towards us, grabbing the spotlight and sticking it in their eyes, we probably wouldn't be here."
The very first Tasman crossing was completed by Kiwi Colin Quincey in 1977.
- AAP