He and five other volunteer lifeguards have spent the past 21 days travelling around the nation's coast in two inflatable rescue boats (IRBs).
A six-hour trip from Curio Bay, in the Catlins, brought them to St Clair beach yesterday where members of the club cruised out to bring them ashore.
The record-setting voyage was raising awareness of Surf Lifesaving New Zealand's centenary.
Mr Matuschka believed their mission was "doing exactly what we hoped" it would, and also allowed the crew to connect with more isolated clubs, such as Greymouth and Kaka Point.
They were about six days ahead of schedule, despite spending two "frustrating" days in Fiordland delayed by bad weather.
"The hospitality that's been shown to us, particularly in the South Island, has just been unexpected and amazing.
"That's been a huge highlight," he said.
They spent last night in Dunedin where they took part in St Clair Surf Lifesaving Club's centenary celebrations.
"It's just good to get all the local clubbies together," he said.
Veteran St Clair surf lifeguard Bart Smaill (71), who joined the club in 1952, was among them.
Having saved many lives in the surf, he had the favours repaid when he got into difficulty on a surf ski before Christmas.
"I just didn't feel very good, so thought I better go back in.
"I got halfway in and my body just shut down.
"I couldn't paddle," he said.
After getting knocked off about 50m from shore, he signalled to nearby lifeguards for help and they dragged him on to the beach.
A trip to hospital revealed he had atrial fibrillation, where the heartbeat becomes irregular and may become very fast, and an angiogram showed an artery was 95% blocked.
Mr Smaill underwent quadruple bypass surgery and is now recovering, but took the time to visit St Clair to see the six lifeguards come ashore and believed their adventure was "great publicity".
The lifeguards also crossed paths with solo kayaker Tim Taylor as he continued his 5500km paddle around New Zealand.
They met near the Clutha River and the lifeguards advised him to travel further south before heading for land as the sea conditions were quite rough.
The lifeguards and their support crew will head to Timaru at dawn today and expect to end their journey in Auckland by February 13.
• Tauranga's SunLive website reported yesterday Oamaru police had arrested a person following the theft of equipment from Mr Taylor's campsite in North Otago last week, NZPA reported.
