Day 15 - Rotorua

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Today we started the morning with a another great breakfast at the Seaview B&B (we're learning to really enjoy muselli) and then on the road again. Today's trip was relativly short, it was just a few hours from Napier to Rotorua. We even bought a few used CD's (Arlo Guthrie, REO Speedwagon and Fleetwood Mac) to add some music to the trip. Unfortunatly we only got through the first 15min of Alices Resturant when the CD player in the car broke. We were trully bummed and Tony was looking forward to hearing the Pickle song.

After the three hour drive to Rotorua we checked into our B&B. It's pretty close to town and the hosts are very friendly and helpful. The rooms are very nice and they even have thier own thermal pool.

The whole area of Rotorua is geothrmically active. It has a long history of spas and pools, and tourism 😊. The town is nice enough but seems to shut down around 5:30...except for the bars.

Tony was able to help our host get his email fixed and then we were off to find some lunch and wait for our next tour. We took a few hours this afternon and rafted on a nearby river. We went through 14 rapids in about 1 hour. Anne and Chris each fell out once. Tony managed to stay in the boat on this trip.

Anne fell out right at the beginnnig of the trip, apparently in the most dargerous spot, right in the middle of a double drop falls. The guides were able to haul her back into the boat before we went over the next drop. Chris fell out AFTER the biggest rapid, a 9m (27 ft) waterfall. We got down safe and sound and stayed in the boat. We were cheering and congratulating ourselves when Chris toppled over the side. Everyone had a good laugh.

The river is very close to the road and a photographer was following us taking some great shots, very professional and there is a serise showing us going over the waterfall. We bought a copy of the CD and attached some of the photos from it to the blog 😊

Dinner was short and sweet, chicken gyros for all. Some of the best food we've had recently. Tonight's plan is a soak in our host's thermal pool and then off to a good night's rest. Tomorrow we're going to check out the Luge, Tony and Chris might play a round of golf and then on to Hamilton (maybe 😊 )

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Photos

AARRGGHHhh...
you have to be kidding!

First Waterfall
Good shot of us staying in.

Anne Out
Anne fell out at the "worst place possible". Notice the class 4 waterfall just meters away from her. We were paddling like hell

Top
9m (27ft) waterfall... the top was scary

Middle
Yes, that is the raft completely vertical, I am at the bottom.

Bottom
Yes, that is the boat completely submerged.

coming up
See... being in the front means you get to breathe first.

Up
Phew, we all made it. (then while we were cheering, Chris fell off).

Comments

[katt]

being suicidal is fun!
I've only been on Class III rapids (South fork of American River), which wasn't too "risky". This, on the other hand, looks CRAZY-SUICIDAL! I bet everyone had a blast! What would be the class equivalency for this one?