It has been three-and-a-half years since adventurer Andrew McAuley went missing agonisingly close to the New Zealand coast after his monumental effort to become the first person to paddle the 1600km stretch of ocean.

Glenbrook resident Vicki was still in New Zealand for the search in 2007 when she decided to complete her husband’s dream and chronicle his journey in a book, with an often traumatic process culminating in the launch next week of Solo.

Reliving the tragic events through Andrew’s written and video journals was so emotionally and physically draining it contributed to a bout of pneumonia.

“It was just horrendous because . . . the stuff that he’s talking about is just so powerfully emotional and just the real internal struggle between leaving his wife and child . . . Or did he follow his passion?” said Vicki.

“(His) was just a real drive that people that don’t have any adventurous spirit just simply cannot understand, they can’t comprehend how he would leave his wife and young child . . . to go and do something that’s so outrageously risky.”

The finished product is a tale that, while dealing with the grief of Andrew’s disappearance, Vicki also hopes will inspire people to step out of their comfort zone.

Writing the book was as much as anything about providing son Finlay with an explanation of the events that led to his father’s death.

At Finlay’s request, Vicki has begun reading the book to her son and the ensuing questions are already proving difficult.

“We were lying in bed and Finlay said, ‘Why did we let him go? Why did he go?’ . . . So that’s been a little bit tricky for me . . . but I guess the right thing to do is if he wants me to read it to him, I guess that’s the right thing because he has a right to know and understand totally what happened.”

Vicki has been conscious not to stifle Finlay’s own adventurous spirit, which is already mirroring his father’s, though a recent development might be a bridge too far.

“(Finlay) said: ‘I think I would like to try and paddle across the Tasman when I’m older’, and he said, ‘How would you feel about that mum?’ I couldn’t really come up with an answer to that one . . . Hopefully he’ll change his mind in the next 20 years,” said Vicki.

Solo will be launched at Glenbrook on Tuesday.