After months of delays, Horonuku has had its first outing on the lake ahead of its world record attempt.
The land craft has been stuck in storage since being designed and built in Auckland. It's been an agonising wait for Emirates Team New Zealand, with Lake Gairdner in South Australia taking longer than expected to dry up.
This week former America's Cup skipper Glenn Ashby piloted the craft on the salt lake for the first time, putting theory into practice by swapping out the simulations for the salt lake.
"It was awesome. It was absolutely incredible to be out on the salt. Pretty surreal to be honest," Ashby said.
They're attempting to break a land speed record while being powered purely by the wind. The current record was set in 2009 by British innovator Richard Jenkins.
"Our goals today are to basically put the craft back together again," said Ashby.
The skipper said in New Zealand they had the use of all sorts of machinery to help them get the land craft to the sand.
"Back in Auckland, we had the use of forklifts and cranes and a perfectly smooth surface when we were getting set up.
"Obviously, the salt is perfectly smooth, but we've got to get the craft down here to the lake so it's quite rough and bumpy getting everything down."
