White Water Adventure....Awesome!!!

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12th February 2009 - ARRIVAL IN ROTORUA!!
The drive seemed long!! I think it was because we had been up since 5.30am and had been pretty busy all day. Nat did the driving but that didn't mean I could sleep like I usually do when inside a vehicle.....no...I had to navigate!! The drive once again was along a lot of twisty roads and passed nice landscapes....never seen a place with so much greenery!! We didn't take too many wrong turnings and arrived in Rotorua before 8pm and found the hostel - Crash Palace - pretty much straight away. It was ok...bit like a rundown old building but we didn't get bunk beds again and it seemed clean enough!! Would be ok for a couple of days!!

Rotorua is one of the world's most spectacular Geothermal Wonderlands. Geothermal activity, from the Greek geo meaning earth and therme meaning heat, seethes from cracks in the streets, steams from backyard hot pools, bursts from geysers throughout the area, and bubbles from cauldron-like mud pools. (How intellectual do I sound?!!) The smell is one of rotten eggs….not nice but it doesn't matter where you go...the smell is the same!! Once settled into our room we went downstairs to pick up some leaflets about what to do in the area and Nat went out for some milk for morning. After a scorching day it was pouring down with rain. Apparently that’s NZ....sunny through the day and rains at night!! Fine by me!! We were both knackered from getting up so early and being on the go all day so neither of us felt up to much. I spent an hour on the net updating my blog to keep all my followers happy.........or bored...you choose, and Nat went straight to bed. I followed at around midnight and fell straight to sleep. I was looking forward to spending a couple of days here!!


Friday 13th February 2009 - WHITE WATER RAFTING!!!
I woke up at 8am. Still tired but difficult to sleep when in a room of 10 and people getting up all around you. Nat was just waking up too and so we had a quick chat about rafting. I was definitely going and Nat had decided to come too despite her having a dream about tipping out and getting trapped underneath teh raft. By teh time we had got out of bed and had breakfast it was too late to book the 9am slot and so we booked on for the 12pm slot. I couldn't wait...so excited....more so than when I first discovered Wham Bars!! Nat was a bt nervous and it didn't help when teh man on teh desk reminded us that it was Friday 13th!! Oh Ohhh!!!

Once dressed & sorted we bummed about in the hostel using the net, reading, journal writing and watching morning TV.....no trashy Jeremy Kyle shows out here though for easy morning watching....all news!! I bumped into the hostel pet for the first time this morning too....a big black bull type dog!! It was pretty playful and 'friendly I was told!! Telling me a dog is friendly is like saying that Hellmanns Light Mayo has all the taste of Hellmanns Real Mayo. It's just not true!! Say one thing for it though...it was obedient and when the boss called it, it went running straight to him. The workers at the hostel were lovely too and kept the dog out of my way as much as possible. Pretty funny...at 12pm we sat waiting for the bus to pick us up.......I couldn't wait to get on the bus and way from the prowling dog and Nat wanted the bus to be late or cancel as she was scared of the rafting!! Total Opposites!!!

The bus turned up at about 12.30. We were the last pickups and so the bus was pretty full and we headed straight to the Team Kaitiaki base. Once there we signed the disclaimer form and were given our equipment - life jacket, water boots and helmet. Apparently it was too warm for wetsuits or jackets. So glad I had a pair of shorts in my bag. Poor Nat only had her bikini and with the life jacket on she looked like she had noting on underneath...she felt naked!! Funny outfit anyway with the bare legs and boots!! Watch out catwalk!!!

Once kitted out and back on the bus we headed for the grade 5 Kaituna river. We would pass through steep narrow bush clad canyons, over and through 14 rapids and down three waterfalls...all in under 1 hour. We carried the rafts down to the river and were split into 3 rafting groups. We were in a 4 with 2 elder women (An Aussie called Sandra and a NZ called Liz) and we had 2 guides on ours - Cory and Sam. Before we put any rafts on the river, one of the guides spoke in Maori and paid respect to the people of the river and asked for our safe passage along it. Pretty cool!! We then put our rafts on the river, jumped in the water and scrambled on!!! Time to raft!!

As we headed along we did some chanting and there was a bit of pushing, shoving and pulling people out of other rafts. Good fun!! We were also taught what to do when Sam shouted 'Get Down'.....put your paddle along the side of the boat, hold both ropes, slide onto the floor....knees up to chest and head down!! It wasn't long before we came to the first and second waterfalls which were almost straight after one another. We did a team high 5 with the paddles and then paddled forwards towards the drop.......just before we reached the edge we heard "GET DOWN' which we did. Such fun as we sailed down the waterfalls. Only baby ones but still we got pretty soaked and took some good water to the face. I loved it and could not stop smiling and laughing!!

From there we continued down the river & went through a couple more rapids as well as a flat bit where we splashed with the other rafts and tried to pull people of into the water. Once splash time was over we were back in the raft and headed around the corner and on towards the big one......7 meters tall and called Tutea Falls. She was a beast!! Before we got there we did some Maori team chanting led by Cory to build up some spirit and then paddled like hell towards the drop. We were told what to do if we fell out & we all thought it likely that it would happen...oh dear!! Just before we went over the edge......'GET DOWN'. I got down and clung on for dear life though I did forget to put my head down or close my mouth. The result was a big hit of water to the face that almost knocked my head clean off my shoulders!! We went right under the foot of the falls but when we came up somehow we were all still in the boat...woohoo!! Made it!! The adrenalin rush was immense!!

We hung around at the bottom waiting for the other rafts to come down. It looked amazing and there were some close calls but both rafts got down unscathed!! Sweet As!! We then had a play and jumped (or in Nat's case got pulled) into the water. I got my foot stuck so only got half out...rubbish!! Back in the raft we did some more rapids and then all got out again for another swim. This time Sam wouldn't let us back on the raft and made us do a people train down the next rapid. I held onto Nat's waist and Liz held onto mine etc!! We got sucked right under and washed out. The current was so strong we were taken quite a bit further down the river and almost got took out my the raft before we eventually managed to get back in. Awesome though!!

Once back in the raft we went down a couple more rapids and then played a bit of bumper boats at the bottom with another raft. Our raft came off worst as you can see by the photos. I flew towards the water and was almost out of the raft and under when Liz threw herself on top of me and pulled me back in!! I felt like a steam train had hit me and my body felt bruised but I didn't go in...well saved Liz!!

At the last rapid...Killer Death Falls (Sounds safe eh?) Sam made us paddle back towards the bottom of it for photos. This was the first time we had spotted the camera but apart from the first nicely staged photo the rest we couldn't control as you can tell by the gurning faces I am pulling!! We took a lot of water to the face and I think I was sat on the wrong side of the boat as my side kept getting sucked under. I couldn't keep hold of my paddle despite my best efforts and it shot out whacking my hand in the process...ouch!!! After some constant laughing, smiling and swallowing half the river (I should learn to shut my mouth) we were pushed out of the rapid and back to calm waters. My hand was killing and had a massive golf ball sized lump on top.....turned out I had burst a blood vessel!! Painful!!

Around the corner we saw dry land, paddled to it and got ourselves and the raft out of the water. We carried the raft on our heads (Nat pretended as she wasn't tall enough so there was a visible gap between her head and the raft) up to the trailer where we had a couple of final group shots to finish off. It was then back on the bus to the base where we got dried, changed and I got some ice for the huge swelling on my hand!! We then watched a slideshow of photos which were so funny. I have kept them in order as most follow in quick succession and you can see exactly what happened in slow motion!! My grin was huge the whole way round except for when I was swallowing water........Absolutely Awesome Trip!!

The same company also do a 'sledge it' activity where you go down the same rapids on your own with only a sledge and a pair of fins. Looked fab and I wanted to do it the following morning but with my new hand injury and my persistent, slowly getting worse shoulder injury I thought it best to leave it as I didn't want to push my luck. Maybe later in the trip!!

We got back to the hostel around 4ish and chilled out outside for a bit in the hammocks and Nat went in the hot tub. Nice way to relax and finish off the day!! We the showered and changed (trousers for me - it gets cold in NZ at night) and headed down for the free bbq of sausages, bread, salad and bacon. Bacon? On a bbq? Weird!! It all went down well though with a nice cold beer...our first of NZ...well done ladies!!

As night drew in it got colder and we took a pew in the TV room for the night. 2 guys from Hull were putting a film on "End Game" though it really should have been called "Dead End" as it was rubbish. Saying that, we should have know better than to put a film on with Burt Reynolds in!! We followed that film with "Scream". Enjoyed it as it's ages sine I watched it and couldn't believe how young the actors all looked. Once Scream had finished it was off to bed with my thermal blanket. Difficult to get comfy with my shoulder but managed in the end - I went to sleep praying for no more injuries!!!

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Photos

River Kaituna
1 hour of intense rafting!! Cool as!!!