The 40-year-old cyclist rode from Christchurch to Invercargill, following the trail his grandfather travelled 80 years ago.
Thijs is now the second man in his family to have completed the nearly 570km journey.
He did it in a total ride time of 21 hours and 40 minutes and an overall time of 26 hours and 15 minutes.
His grandfather, Harry Hubber, also completed it and set a record time for it twice, once in 1943 — 22 hours and 31 minutes — and then in 1968 — 20 hours and 42 minutes — when he was 47 years old.
Thijs said he had never met his grandfather but wanted to replicate the journey to experience what he went through.
"I just can’t fathom how he did it so fast with the technology and the roads and the nutrition. They were just made of different stuff."
He said all his grandfather had for nutrition was a bottle of milk to keep him going through his journey.
Thijs on the other hand, had smoothies, plenty of electrolytes and the advantage of modern bike technology.
He said even though when he finished he was very hazy, shaking and in a bit of shock, he was already thinking about attempting the ride again.
"It’s crazy because I thought I’d only replicate it once, one and done sort of thing.
"But I actually want to do that again and it’s actually like refining and actually seeing what I can really do."
He said he would be more precise in the stops and refine his training campaign.
Thijs was fundraising for mental health and had managed to raise more than $10,000.
