THE setting was perfect for a memorial to a lost kayaker, the eulogies were moving, but nothing shook the hundreds of mourners gathering at Macquarie Lighthouse at South Head more than the last words of Andrew McAuley himself.

A recording of observations McAuley made on his last journey - an attempt to become the first person to kayak from Australia to New Zealand - had been found in his overturned vessel.

McAuley, who left Fortescue Bay on the east coast of Tasmania on January 11 and was close to completing the journey when he disappeared on February 9, had described the hardships of his journey.