The details are still a bit sketchy, but it seems that Olly Hicks, the intrepid adventurer from the U.K. who set out to circumnavigate Antarctica in a row boat as part of the Virgin Global Row, finally made land fall in New Zealand a few days back. There has been no updates to his blog to indicate this, but looking at the Google Map on the front page of his site seems to indicate that his progress is now stopped with the boat reaching the southern edge of New Zealand.
Olly announced a few weeks back that he was abandoning his quest following weeks of toil at sea that saw him making much slower progress than he had originally expected. He blamed most of the issues on his boat, the Flying Carrot, saying that it didn't track well in the brutal winds of the Southern Ocean.
Despite the fact that Olly made it clear that he was done with the row, at least for now, he still had to reach dry land, and it has taken him an additional two weeks to do just that. His last blog post was two days ago, and it tells an awful tale of battling nasty weather conditions just to make it to shore. In the end, much to his chagrin, Olly had to be towed into Pegasus Harbour on Stewart Island.
For now, Olly will rest up, wait, and see what happens next. He hasn't ruled out making another attempt, but a boat redesign will be in order first. One thing is for certain, I'm sure we haven't heard the last of Olly.
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