River Valley

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We arrived in River Valley in the late afternoon, after a smooth pick up in Taupo, another "quick" hiking stop in Tongariro National Park, and a rather uneventful drive to the beautiful River Valley Lodge! What an amazing place! In the absolut middle of nowhere! Lord of the Rings Scenery, and a fantastic River... great chicken roast dinner and a few kiwi beers, a game of janga with real bricks, small talk with a group of older German tourists who were going on the scenic raft trip in the morning, and then off to bed to get some rest to be energized in the morning to tackle all the class 5 rapids that were awaiting us!

So after a hearty breakfast, we all got issued our gear... a fleece, a wetsuit, booties, another loose top and of course the helmet.. this was going to be fun!!!! we drove for about 25 min to the put-in place, went over the obligatory safety measures, found our raft guide (we had 6 boats with 5 people in it each). Cam was our guide, an Aussie by birth and a Kiwi and raftguide by choice. Also in my boat, were Mandy from Canada, Vivienne from England, and Kristina from Sweden... neither one of them had any rafting experience... and so... after a bit of a struggling beginning to get all the comands right, etc. we were off and running and mastered our first class 3 with only one person falling out of the boat, and after we got that behind us, and Cam really had everyones attention now, we set off on a true adventure. This was by far the most technical rafting i have ever done. Since the river goes through some really narrow gorges, and it was running really low, we had to manoever around tons of rocks! What a thrill! Not quite as much big waves rafting as i was used too from the New River in WV, but just as much fun! I wish i could show you the pictures, but you will have to wait for them, since they are being mailed home (courtesy of River Valley Lodge) .

After the fun morning on the river, we showered, packed up, had lunch and went off to the Capital City of Wellington. Our arrival in Wellington was quite late, 7 pm. and Ed and his girlfriend Bridget picked me up and after a bit of a Tiki Tour (which is NZ for short sight seeing tour) we went to their apartment, had a bite to eat, chatted, and hit the hey! So since it is a gorgeous day out in Wellington, and i still have so much to see... i am going to finally get off the computer now and explore!

more from the South Island in a couple of days... 😊

cheers SL

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