White Water Rafting
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2011
1
115
289
Trip End
Sep 06, 2012
Where I stayed
Taupo, North Island, New Zealand
Sunday, February 12, 2012
The journey today was through Rotorua (again) and staying this evening in Taupo.
We left Maketu quite early as some of use were booked on to do the White Water Rafting, and I was one of them! Ha, this was going to be awesome.
We arrived there around 9.30 am and were kitted out in our gear. No wetsuit for me as they said the water was around 20 degrees and you can get quite hot in the wetsuits.
The ride consisted of being in the water for around an hour, hitting loads of rapids and falling down 2 waterfalls. The first waterfall was a double drop, so you fell around 2 metres then a metre an a half. The second waterfall had a drop of 7 metres which is the largest commercially rafted waterfall in the world. OMG, what was I letting myself in for.
We were driven to the starting point of the rafting and while we were on the bus, they gave us a run down of the safety aspects of the ride. After he had finished the talk, I think eveyone thought they were going to die. There was talk of the raft capsising, people falling out and tumbling around in the falls and also the dangers of it. I don't think I have ever been so quiet as I was once I got off of the bus!
There were 7 of us in our raft, all from the bus. There was me, Craig, Ashley, Nicole, Lena, Anita and the Canadian girl who's name I have completely forgotten (oops!). Our guide was Gofur, who was absolutely awesome and hilarious. He explained all the actions that we had to do when he shouted out the commands, like hold on, get down, forward, backwards etc. Basically we had to paddle until he shouted stop and if he shouted hold on, you had to grab the rope by the side of you and behind you, and if it was get down, you had to drop into the boat, making sure your feet were wedged infront on you and hold on to the outside rope and handle on the floor. The gap was so small my bum didn't touch the floor. Hmmm, one think's I might fall out.
The experience was amazing, flying down the river, hitting rapids backwards and sidewards. getting absolutely soaked, but surviving.
When we got to the first waterfall, there was a raft in front of us that went first, so we got to see what it looked like. Hmmm, my heart started pounding a little. Suddenly it was our turn and Gofur shouted out the commands and then it was get down. We hit the fall and then the second falls and came out without a scratch or losing anyone. It was amazing. Bring on the big one.
Well, we got to the second waterfall and watched the raft go down in front of us. All of us just went white. It took around 30 to 45 seconds before we saw the raft, but they survived. Then it was our turn. Again, we had to paddle up to the fall and the command was to get down and hold on for dear life. Oh my god, I thought I was gonna fall out, but somehow, I was wedged in so tightly I couldn't move. The raft plummeted down fall and the whole raft went in to the water, then boucned back up the right way with all of us in tact! Happy days. It was amazing. I wanted to do it again. All of us were just grinning from ear to ear and couldn't believe what we had just done.
One of the other boats that came down lost a person, but they came up fine and pulled back up into their boat.
All together I think there were 4 rafts and we were all messing around, splashing each other, and some of the guides, pulling people out of the boat into the water for fun. It was definately one of the best things I have done and worth the money!
After we had all got back, got changed and looked at the photo's taken of us by the company, we got dropped back into Rotorua where everyone was waiting for us. Some of the gang were staying here, so it was a sad occassion as they were a great bunch. We then headed to Taupo, where we were staying for the night. Half of the bus were doing a skydive here over the lake. Good luck to them I say. I would never do it again! It would be an awesome view though as the lake is the size of Singapore, and the weather was pretty good so good visability for them.
I headed off with Miss P, as she was doing a dive, as I wanted to watch them all instead of just sitting around in the hostel with nothing to do.
It was great to see them all come down and also their faces afterwards. Everyone had a buzz, apart from Marty, one of the Dutch guys, he was so quiet, I don't think it had sunk in as to what he had just done.
Definately a quet night for me tonight as I have planned to do a 7 hour walk tomorrow in the National Park, called the Tangariro Crossing. The number one hike in New Zealand.
Had to say goodbye to more people as they were staying in Taupo for another couple of days. Boo. I've now lost my bus partner Joe. Mind you, I'm not sure if that is a bad thing as he has come down with man flu and I don't want to get it!!!
