We got back around 9:30. Just in time to book out next adventure. 6 of the girls made reservations to go bungee jumping and to ride a giant swing through a canyon. Call me a wimp or a chicken or whatever else but I have never experienced even an inkling of a desire to tie myself to a rope and jump off a 200 ft bridge. No i like to defy death using more practical methods. Such as rafting down level 4 rapids.
Erika, our program director, is a river guide during some of the summer months. She guides in both the Grand Canyon and Moab. So while the other girls looked up bungee prices we looked up rafting down the river. Just fyi the rapids are judged based on an international scale of 1-6. 1 being the most calm and easiest to navigate and 6 being insane. So our level 4 rapids were boarding on insane but mostly just they just remained in the awesome fun zone.
We met at the station at 1 to check in. Shortly after that we were loaded up on a bus and taken to the changing station. This is where we picked up our gear. We had our togs (bathing suites) on and then put on a layer of wetsuit with wetsuit footies and a wetsuit jacket. They also equipped us with a bright yellow life jacket and matching helmet. So after changing we were off! Meaning we boarded another bus that was pulling the boats behind it.
Allow me to paint a picture of the road we travelled on to our launch site. For starters it used to be an old mining trail that led from the mountains to our river. We can say that we rafted down one of New Zealand's wealthiest rivers due to its high concentration of gold. Even today it is still possible to find gold flakes and such. Only they are a bit more few and far between than in years past. Anyway back to our dirt road. This road snaked its way down the valley hovering very near the cliff edge most of the trip. There were no barriers or fences to prevent a fall and I could see the straight shot down to the bottom a few hundred feet below most of the time from the window. There was even one part of the road that we had to drive quickly over because the road was a bit unstable. We were told afterwards that that specific road is the 13th most dangerous road in the world... No worries though I made it!
So we made it down the dangerous road and out of the bus. There were a few buses that followed behind us making our group big enough to fit in 8 rafts comfortably. Each boat was equipped with its own guide and had enough space for about 8 people (our group was 5 eith 2 people from Britain who joined our party). We were set and all we had to do was supply the manpower :). Our fearless leader was a man named Esteban from Argentina. Yes I spoke to him in Spanish- a rare opportunity in this country.
It was amazing being on the river! The water was so beautiful! You know the kool-aid flavor that is icy blue? That is what the water looked like and felt like as well. I'm so glad that we had wetsuits because the water was only about 40 degrees F. After a few safety instructions we hopped into our assigned vessels and were off! They had a safety kayak following the boats just in case extra assistance was required.
The first part of the river was pretty calm and the scenery was so beautiful! We even were privileged to see a few wild goats left here by the minors. Our guide used the quiet water to practice drills with us and prepare us for the rapids. Oh yes this was no leisurely paddle down a river. It was like a mini boot camp with Esteban giving commands and us attempting to follow. :) Once he found out that Erika was also a river guide he used her and asked her advice as we headed down the river. There was one point where he came up front and let Erika guide us through some mini rapids. I also got to go for a quick swim during a calm water section just for fun. Again I was grateful for the wetsuit.
The craziest part was the second half of the journey. Each set of rapids had its own name from jaws to minors revenge to oh s***. There were a few more but I can't remember their names. It was amazing to experience mother natures power and to see how weak mankind really is. Whoever had the idiot idea to get in a rubber raft and float through raging rapids? Well it was quit the thrill. We made it through each rapid without a single tip over. One of the rafts wasn't so lucky and we ended up having to transport a girl so she could get back into her original raft.
During our final stretch we rafted through an old mining cave. The longest rafting tunnel in the world- about 100 feet long. Our final rapid was a huge surprise. Esteban asked us to pull in our paddles and to get down in the middle of the raft with our heads down. Next thing I know we are going down this mini waterfall with water coming at us on all sides. We were drenched! It was so crazy! That final adrenalin rush brought us to the end of our adventure. After stripping off our wetsuits (those things are hard to take off) we were treated to a nice warm sauna. Oh it felt so good!!
And finally, in case that wasn't enough to end a perfect day we had Hell's pizza for dinner. Man I ate so much food! I was starving from paddling for 3 hours. It was a great ending to such an adventurous day!
Erika took most of the photos of our raft trip so I'll update the blog with those as soon as I get them. These other two pictures are of the jet boat.
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