Rowers welcomed to Waikiki

New Zealander Tara Remington’s and her Paralympian companion Angela Madsen ended an epic row across the Pacific Ocean when they came ashore in Hawai’i this weekend.

Tara, 44, a professional teaching fellow at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education, is rowing across the Pacific Ocean from Long Beach, Los Angeles to Waikiki in Hawai’i with American Paralympian Madsen, 54.

The pair left Los Angeles on May 20 in their six-metre mono-hull rowboat, the Spirit of Orlando. They were estimated to reach Waikiki between 6pm and 7pm on Sunday, July 20, New Zealand time, depending on the weather.

They have averaged between 90 and 110 kilometres a day for the past week.

For Tara’s wife, Rebecca Remington, it had a nervous wait on shore in Waikiki, but the mai tai cocktails were helping.

“It’s kind of nerve wrecking at the moment,” she said. “For them, they’re rowing, so they’ve got something to occupy their minds. We’re just waiting here, so the cocktails help.”

When Remington and Madsen complete the journey they will break two records.

They will be the first female pair in history to row from California to Hawai’i – while Angela, who is paralysed from the waist down, will be the first paraplegic to row from Los Angeles to Hawai’i.

The 4000km odyssey has been to raise money for New Zealand girl Charlotte Cleverley-Bisman. Charlotte lost her arms and legs to meningitis as a baby in 2004.

Now a ten-year-old, she needs on-going assistance with prosthetic limbs as she grows.

Remington’s row will also help raise enough money for Charlotte to attend Camp No Limits, a special camp for amputees and their families held in the United States each year.

Angela, a former US marine, is also using the row to raise money for wounded American war veterans.

Remington, a Waiuku resident, first got involved with Charlotte’s charity through the Meningitis Trust in the 2007 Atlantic Rowing Race, and now her daughter Jade is Charlotte’s pen pal.