River Valley, Nz

We stayed at River Valley lodge, where there was nothing around you except from trees, rocks, the river and the lodge, it was gorgeous! This was where we did our white water rafting. In the morning they took us up stream and we finished our journey right outside the lodge. The rapids went up to Grade 5, which is the most dangerous you can do!!

On one of the less violent rapids we were allowed to jump out to practice keeping our feet and head above the water in case we were to fall out when we got to the bigger rapids. It was quite diffcult to do and even more difficult to get back into the raft! Our instructor was hillarious, he was from taupo so didnt know the river that well, so it became quite funny when he would ask us what to do next. We also were the only ones with a new raft, which means it becomes more likely to stick to rocks in low levelled areas. Therefore in order for us to fit though some of the rocks and not get stuck we had to keep jumping left or right to tip the boat onto its side! At one point we were stuck for about 5 minutes and in the end our instructor had to climb onto a rock and try to move the boat while we were all still in it, jumping up and down like maniacs.

At one point we got out to have a look in one of the caves, but as we did our raft started to float away, luckily our instructor jumped to the rescue and managed to grab on to it, Jenny and Greg managed to get in just in time too, leaving Kim behind who then had no choice but to jump in the water and to swim to it!!!

On one of the grade 5 rapids there was a small waterfall where you had to make sure you positioned the boat correctly in order to avoid any injuries. Luckily we did, but two other teams didnt manage too. One went sideways and the instructor ended up smashing into a rock on the way down and slicing his arm open, another didnt distribute the weight properly and ended up toppling over, making the people at the back fly forwards off the raft.

The guides told us that when it comes to White Water Rafting, ignorance is bliss, thats why we did not get that scared as we did not know what was around the corner or what could happen if it went wrong. This is one sport where the guides are actually more scared then you!