Over the weekend, Tasman-rowing hopeful Shaun Quincey powered away on a rowing machine, chasing the world one-million-metre record of 128 hours.

On Friday night the New Zealand Geographic trust grantee broke the world record for 500km and kept going despite sleep depravation and pain. On Saturday he rowed right through until 3.30am, finishing at 703,000 metres, but laboured most of the way under mouth ulcers, muscle cramps, blurred vision, nausea and acid reflux. He rowed clean through his 25th birthday on Sunday but at 8pm, fatigue and a muscle strain put an end to his record attempt, and Quincey stepped off the machine 200km shy of the 1000km mark on the advice of a paramedic and a doctor.

Naturally he's disappointed, and exhausted, but it was a sensational effort. He learned a lot and it turned out to be good preparation for the physical and mental challenge that awaits in the Tasman.

Trans-tasman rowing hopeful Shaun Quincey has just passed the one-quarter mark on his world record attempt. The New Zealand Geographic Trust grantee is chasing a rowing world record for one million metres (1000km) of 128 hours. Having already rowed for 29 hours, Quincey is on-course to smash the existing record by 12 hours.

He's been rowing in blocks of five hours, gorging himself on food, then sleeping for 20 minutes. Is it harder than he expected? "Well I knew it was going to be horrific," he says.

Follow Quincey's record attempt on www.tasmantrespasser.com - clicking on Live Coverage to watch him rowing, and follow on twitter @tasmanrower. Alternatively go and see the bloke at the Mairangi Bay Surf Club, North Shore and offer your support, or a sandwich.

Photographer Rob Suisted has posted a blog about mentoring Spiderman Bryce McQuillan for the Young gun scheme.

You can read this blog at his website Nature's Pic Images

Link to the blog:
http://blog.naturespic.com/2009/06/15/very-rare-creepy-crawlies-mentoring-a-young-photog-for-nz-geo-magazine.html

Auckland University of Technology photography intern Olivia Garelja has begun the gargantuan task of restoring New Zealand Geographic’s entire archive of almost 100 issues spread across hundreds of CDs in dozens of formats. This is the painstaking start to digitising our back issues so that people can more easily access this rich resource. - Appears in New Zealand Geographic Issue 96.

There are a couple of seats left on our first New Zealand Geographic Trust reader expedition on April 4. We’ll be heading into the outer Hauraki Gulf, past the Mokohinau Islands in search of the New Zealand storm petrel. Bird tour guide Chris Gaskin, of Pterodroma Pelagics, will lead our search for this tiny bird which was considered extinct until a few years ago. Prepare for a full day on the water. Cost: $220 per person, including lunch and morning and afternoon teas. Email linda@nzgeographic.co.nz or call Christine on (09) 307-0122 to book your place. - Appears in New Zealand Geographic Issue 96.