Motivation and morale is high on the Moana this evening as day 44 of the Team Gallagher trans Tasman row draws to a close. After a day on sea anchor due to stormy weather, the quartet of Nigel Cherrie, Andrew McCowan, Martin Berka and James Blake were back on the oars about 8:30 this morning.

They've made steady progress and by 18:30 were approximately 60km closer to Cape Reinga. They are now within 500km of New Zealand's shores.

Martin reported this evening that they were "rowing hard, playing loud music on the speaker and are all very motivated. We can't wait to see the Long White Cloud!"

Team Leader Nigel says he had "a good and bad day personally today. We've had great rowing conditions and I've been paired with Andrew who sets the perfect stroke rate to get the best speed."

"My lower back issue has cleared up but I'm really struggling with being away from (my son) Thomas for so long."

Since the boat's stove broke a few days ago, the team have had to improvise with heating methods for their food.

"There's something wrong with sleeping during breaks with a bag of freeze dried Mexican chicken stuffed down your boxer shorts to warm it up. Wrong, plain wrong!"