A Taupo-based rescue pilot will fly supplies to a kayaker who is about 500km from New Zealand in the Tasman Sea.
Scott Donaldson, 43, left Coffs Harbour in Australia in April, but his supplies are dangerously low after he suffered setbacks. He is attempting to become the first person to cross the Tasman in a single kayak and has about two weeks of paddling to go.
The Hamilton man's wife has asked pilot John Funnell to drop supplies using parachutes on Friday.
Funnell said he had done practice drops over Lake Taupo but there had been swells of about four metres in the Tasman drop zone.
Funnell told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report programme he will drop three parcels of food and water to the kayak on Friday afternoon, when the swell is expected to be fairly calm.
He said his Piper Comanche plane will be used to drop the parcels into the sea just in front of the kayak, to try to make it easier for Donaldson to collect them.
