Distance cyclist Joanna Sharpe has begun her attempt to break a world record by travelling from the North Island's most westerly point to its most easterly and back in three days.
Sharpe, who's also raising money and awareness for bowel cancer, set off in high spirits from a cold and windy Cape Egmont, just south of New Plymouth, early on Friday morning.
The ride could see her set a women's World Ultra Cycling Association record. A men's world record was set in 2013 for a similar trip.
"If everyone could think good weather thoughts for me, I'd be most grateful," she told Breakfast just before she set off live on the programme.
Sharpe's aiming to travel 1250 kilometres in under three days and is wearing a tracking device so that people can follow her journey.
This is far from her first effort to break cycling records in the name of raising awareness for bowel cancer, though.
Last year she became the first woman to cycle the length of New Zealand in just under a week, cycling over 2000 km.
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