Rotarua + Kaituna River Rafting

Happy birthday to Chelsea! Today we celebrated by rafting down the world’s tallest commercially rafted waterfall and relaxing at the spa - good balance!

The rafting trip was so exhilarating!! We started off with a number of smaller rapids, before going over Tutea Falls, which was a 20 foot drop. This was a category 5 rapid, and the drop was significant(the biggest commercially rafted in the world). Our raft went completely under water, and both Chels and her partner were jettisoned from the raft. The raft was then pulled back under the waterfall, and our guide was directly under it, so the group was no longer able to hear him. The waterfall pulled the raft under a second time and threw off another of the riders before ultimately spitting the remainder of the group out. The whole experience was super exciting, and after the huge waterfall the next 30 minutes of rapids were a cakewalk. We also got the opportunity to swim over a smaller waterfall head first into a deep pool(both of our first times swimming a rapid), and had some fun with our guide intentionally steering the raft into the base of smaller waterfalls to get the people seated at the front of the raft wet.

Chris thought Chelsea could use a spa day for her birthday to recuperate from the rapids, and treated her to a massage, mud wrap, and private hot spring. The spa was very historic, and had been in operation since 1931. In fact, the current spa was built around the old infrastructure which was a historic site. You could see the old bathing pools still built into the ground. The spa day was rejuvenating, and Chris and Chelsea were able to share the private hot spring which was an extremely relaxing experience.

We capped off the evening with dinner on “eat street” which was a street built purely for a food market upon which cars were not allowed. We picked a fusion restaurant called Atticus Finch, and enjoyed not only dinner, but chocolate cake and port for desert(which are Chelsea’s favorite)Read more