Solo

Adventurers cherish irrepressible longings to walk uncharted paths, to climb higher or reach further than anyone before them, or to take maximum risks with minimum means. When you're looking death in the eye, life gets more colour, smell and taste. That's why the Australian Andrew McAuly came up with the plan to paddle to New Zealand in a simple kayak: a 1,600-kilometre trek over the wild billows of the Tasman Sea. McAuley survived storms, waves as high as houses and ice-cold nights until 9 February 2007, when his four-week trip came to end with the coast of New Zealand in sight. "I'm going down," were his final words. Using interviews, archive footage and recordings that McAuley made himself on the way, directors David Michod and Jen Peedom tell the story of a man who kissed his crying wife and child goodbye because he realised that this could very well be the last time. What for layman's eyes might seem like a pointless, crazy undertaking was for the adventurous McAuley a well-considered challenge that would once again lead him to victory over himself and the elements. The people who knew, love, and understood him and shared his passion tell us how important those motivations were for him.