And then I did too!What's the likely hood of that?! (Answers on a postcard please) So 2 rounds of mini golf for the price of 1 was definitely in the budget.
On the day that Fitz got up at 6am to do the Tongariro Crossing, I felt no guilt at having a bit of a lie in ( til 9 am) having recalled my experience of climbing Volcan Villa Rica in Chile. Instead, I had opted for a more leisurely activity ( much more up my street), a sailing trip aboard 'The Barbary' a 1920s racing yacht once owned by Errol Flynn who won it in a card game. We sailed across Lake Taupo, a pair of ducks flying aboard for biscuits and me taking the wheel.
The trip brought back memories of the sailing holiday in Greece 7 years ago with Dave, Ally and Johnny but there was considerably less sun than then! Also, we managed to catch a rainbow trout on Lake Taupo which is 1 more fish than was caught during a whole week in Greece!
We sailed to the Maori carvings which were completed 28 years ago and can only be reached on water.
The following day, from Taupo we drove 2 hours to Waitomo for our 'Black Abyss' adventure in the Waitomo Caves which was all rather exciting. The fact that it was raining and we may have been a bit wet did not help putting on damp wetsuits any more pleasant! Once we were kitted up and had practised abseiling above ground we were finally ready to go caving! Our trip underground began with a 30 meter abseil into Ruakuri cave which wasn't too scary as it's dark and narrow and you can't see anything part from the rock that surrounds you.
Inside the cave, we were shown stalactites and stalagmites, recalling some of our primary school education to remember which are which. This was shortly followed by a flying fox ( a zip line) in the pitch black. Most challenging however was the jump from a high ledge into the dark black water below with a tyre / giant rubber ring which makes a very loud SMACK as you hit the water with a big splash. Floating in these tyres whilst looking up at the thousands of glow-worms far more relaxing, like looking into a clear night sky sprinkled with stars ( and somewhere with no light pollution).
Caving felt like a real adventure, we swan, crawled and climbed up waterfalls (felt very pleased with myself after that!) and saw couple of eels, stopping for sugary treats along the way. The soup and bagels at the end once we were dry were very welcome! I really enjoyed this experience and would recommend it to anyone who goes to New Zealand. People of all ages can do it, we met an Aussie couple who were in our group who were celebrating their Silver Wedding Anniversary and they did it. Also they have kindly said we can stay with them in the Hunter Valley ( Aussie wine region ) so we will be taking them up on that offer! (They also bought the photos of the trip so we'll be nabbing a copy of them off them too.)
So, as you can tell, we had begun to embrace the extreme activities famously available in New Zealand. It's no surprise then that like all good travellers we choose to participate in a couple more when we arrived in Queenstown, the home of extreme activities ( and that's not included the Queenstown luge which is one of the few street luges in the world, which you can view us doing on iiitbTV). Though as I type I'm thinking if it wasn't for Fitz I may not have been so keen to participate....
Our afternoon of White Water Rafting began in quite a relaxed manner, paddling our way down the Kawarau river. Earlier we have been geared up bad given our safety talk which i found highly amusing, I was nearly crying with laughter at some points as the trip leader, Casey, a true Kiwi, was hilarious. There were 7 rafts on the trip that day 6 people plus a guide per raft. We ended up in Casey's raft which included a middle aged English brother and sister who weren't too keen on capsizing our raft for the sake of it like all the other rafts had been doing, hence the pleasantness of it all.
We hadn't been able to go on the more challenging trip due to the high water levels on the Shotover River caused by the bucket loads of rain which hammered down for days earlier in the week.
We cruised past the Pillars of The Kings as seen in the The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring:
This part of the river is is actually a fraction of the width that appears in the film. Just around the bend from here is the world's first commercial bungee jump which was great to see, especially as I wasn't attached to it!
We reached our final rapid 'Chinese Dogleg' which was the largest at a grade 4 and New Zealand's longest commercial rapid, with 800m of white water. We'd practised paddling as a team and ducking into the raft when things got hairy and so were prepared for what we needed to do. We were the first raft to go through and rose and fell as we went through the first part of the rapid, paddling our arms off. We continued onto the next group of waves, Casey, our guide, not seeing the 'hole' that had appeared from nowhere which meant we hadn't ducked into the raft when the hole caused our raft to to surf upwards resulting in us falling out.
I had no idea what has happened, one second I was paddling away and the next I was in out of the raft, in shock after swallowing a load of water. I was surprised to see Casey (our guide) in the water too and had no idea where Fitz was. I panicked as waves splashed against me and I was pushed along with the current. I was struggling to get my breath when a nice young man (blonde with short dreads) reminded me to put my feet up and float on my back (this prevents you from getting caught up in anything that maybe on the riverbed like a branch of tree). We clung onto one another and there was a lot of shouting going on "Swim left!!" "Swim right" I was really confused and panicked that I couldn't breathe properly. I did my best to swim to the raft but which was tough with the force of the water pushing me from all directions. I failed to grab onto the rope which was thrown out to us, it was just out of reach. However I did mange to clasp onto the paddle which was reached out to me -woo hoo! I was dragged back to the raft and then pulled back on board by my life jacket by the nice English bloke, who was in fact the only person who successfully stayed on board - my Hero! (This is not for the faint hearted -(Dave Goggin.))
Relieved to be out of the water, I tried to steady my gasps for air and worried about where the hell Fitz was cos he wasn't in the raft. He had in fact got back in another raft quite easily and gone into another woman's rescue!
Afterwards, everyone went over and over the whole experience. I was thankful to have survived and everyone was shocked that even Casey, one of the most experienced guides, had fallen out too. It was fun but I was bloody scared when I was in the water!!
So much so that the very next day I decided to abandon the raft completely and opt for a body board and a pair of flippers instead. Known as River Boarding, we signed up with a company called 'Mad Dog', and my God, it was completely mad! Probably one of the craziest things ?I've ever done. Sky diving is is a piece of cake, I'd do that on all the days of the week that end with a 'y'. River boarding on the other hand...hmm...I'm not so sure....
On the morning we went river boarding my apprehension grew and grew as I learnt more about what it exactly entails and the things you must remember to do / not do. However, some relief was had in the fact that we had loads of instructors with us that day, with just 6 of us suckers in our group with nearly a guide each when the usual ratio is about 2:16.
We had practise at kicking, turning and assuming a defensive position g for entering the rapids. We were warned against doing the 1st section of rapids as once again, due to the recent heavy downpours, the water flow had increased making the rapids bigger and stronger than usual. Needless to say, I happily opted out of this section.
So we got in further down the river. It was quite daunting going through the rapids on a body board but I clung on with all my strength, there was no way I was gonna lose my board! (You're strapped to them by your wrist but you still need to hold on tight!)
In the end I went down the river attached to one of the guides so I felt a bit better about the whole situation. We got a massive wave right in the face but onwards we went! It was pretty terrifying! I felt reassured that the worst was over as we went through our final rapid. My legs were tired from all the kicking and my arms ached from holding on so tightly. Despite all the negatives and my fear, I have to say it was a pretty amazing experience.
As we floated downstream after the rapids, it was time to relax a little after what we'd just done and enjoy the river. I struggled to do this as I was still worried I might float into the rocks as you as told to remain in the middle of the river at all times.
We got a ride on a giant body board dragged along behind a jet ski, clinging on for dear life with what little strength I had left in my arms and hands, being flung off at the end as the jet ski turned.
Fitz jumped off some high rocks with the others but I gave that a miss and we all whizzed down a slide and skimmed across the water on our boards.
River Boarding is absolutely exhausting and makes you aware of how unfit you are! If you're looking for a challenge, this is it. I won't be doing it again I don't think, but I'm pleased that I did and proud to tell the tale!
Nic
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