Of course I fell out the boat

Today's photos are a little bit makeshift as they are screen shots taken from a video. As our leaving present Bruce paid for us to go white water rafting at a made man centre in Auckland. The only day we could really fit it in to our schedule was today. We were conscious of the fact that we needed to drive about 5 hours from Russell so we left early, this time taking the much quicker ferry. We ended up getting a free ride because the ladies card machine wasn't working and she refused to take the little cash we did have saying the trip was a Christmas present. At 2pm, after a bit of shopping, we turned up to the Vector Wero white water park where we met the 5 other people we'd be sharing a boat with. They were all on a work team building day together. After a safety video we were suited up with shoes, helmets, life vests and given a paddle each. Our guide seemed to be very experienced and gave us lots of different commands to listen out for and remember, the most basic being forward paddle and back paddle. Soon enough we were going up a ramp ready to give the course our first go. It's a lot scarier than I imagined and it's quite hard to try and paddle when all you want to do is hold on. We often bumped into the sides but I think that's probably quite common. We managed to do it though and after a gentle paddle over the lake it back up for round two. Nick and I got to sit at the front for both of these rounds which was pretty exciting. It was such an adrenaline rush and amongst the laughing and screaming you have to keep reminding yourself to listen and paddle or get down into the boat when told to. On our third lap around the two guys from the work team went at the front and Nick moved to the back while I went second from the front. This time around we tried to "surf" at the bottom of the waterfall which involves paddling straight into it and getting enough water on the front of the boat to hold you there "surfing" for a few seconds before the current takes you away. It was somewhere amongst the excitement of doing this that I fell out. After we started moving downstream again we were all so happy about what we just achieved that I don't think any of us were prepared for the next waterfall so as we went down I didn't grab the rope in time and went over the edge backwards. The first photo shows me in the water with everyone wondering where I'd gone. It's amusing to watch the video and here the commands being shouted at me because I didn't hear any of them. It was a crazy few seconds of trying to get air as I was getting swept down stream. I was saved by our helper on the side who amazingly managed to throw a rope to me and have it land on my face. Only because I felt it was I able to grab it because I couldn't see anything with the water in my eyes. He pulled me out of the current and I was able to climb out before getting back into the boat. I must of bashed my elbow at some point because it's missing a chunk out of it now. After finding my paddle we did one last round before going down a 4.5m drop waterfall which was awesome! Overall it was an amazing afternoon, the best ever leaving present and the perfect way to round off our time here in New Zealand.Read more