LONDON to New Zealand is a tiring enough trek by air, so spare a thought for Jeremy Burfoot, who plans to make the trip to the other side of the world by jet ski.


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Dubbed the Ultimate Ride, the 20,000 mile jet ski journey is set to take about 120 days from its start date of 1 August this year and in the process raise money for cancer charities.

Burfoot, a pilot from Aukland who was diagnosed with a melanoma in 2005, says his long ride home will become the latest installment of a legendary travellers’ trail.

“We’re tackling one of the world’s most iconic routes; the London-to-Sydney journey has been made famous by all kinds of intrepid travellers, though none have tried it on a personal watercraft,” Burfoot, 50, told The Times.

The route Burfoot – plus two fellow jet skiers – is to follow is the one he has seen from the air, so there will be some landmasses to negotiate, but as far as possible, they’ll stick to water.

For instance, the team will ride on the Rhine and Danube across Europe, then the Black Sea and later through the Suez Canal.

Unfortunately, the one stretch of water they might have to miss is the Thames as it courses through central London.

“The London Port Authority have said that jet skis are not allowed on the Thames,” said Burfoot.

“So we’ve got someone in London looking into it, but if they say no we’ll just have to start further down the river.”

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