River valley

View from the trail
Waterfall mid way through the trail
Sharp drop

Crossing
View from the other side

Highest point on the trail i reached

View of the valley
River
Lodge

River valley is a small lodge in the middle of nowhere. We had to buy anything we wanted for the day as after a few hours after setting off we were in the middle of farmland - and nothing else. The nearest town to River valley was an hour away by car. The lodge is next to the river and set in a valley (hence the name). The coach had to stop near the top and we had to carry on by foot. The lodge was really nice and the rooms were set in small chalets.

There was a walk across the river and it was supposed to be really easy and so I crossed the river using the pull bridge thingy and set off. I was in flip flops (why didn't i learn my lesson??). It got steep really quickly!!! I ended up slipping everywhere and so I ended up going barefoot!!

It got nearly vertical and so i got pretty scared as it was quite high up!!! I slipped a few times as the path was quite overgrown and narrow. Lucky i didn't, as it was a long fall to the bottom. Half way up you get to a river and some falls. I crossed the river, holding on for dear life and shortly after had to head back as it was just too steep!!! Crossing the river again was interesting as i had to lower myself practically into the flow of the river!! I was so so glad to reach the bottom in one piece!!! Never again am i going walking in flip flops!!!!

It was saint Patricks day, but it was pretty calm in the evening.

I signed up for Whitewater rafting the next day. I didn't realise that i had signed up for rafting in a grade 5 river!!!! There are 6 grades. 1 is the easiest and 6 is unraftable. What was i thinking??? I'm not going to repeat the definition of a grade 5 river (for fear of scaring the life out of mum).

We got up early and reported to the guides. We got into some clean and dry wetsuits (phew) and jumped in the people carriers. There was three rafting going out this morning and i was concerned as most of the guides had had heavy nights (St P) and some still had green patches on their faces from the face paints!!!! The atmosphere in the carrier was strange - a mix of hang overs and pure fear.

We all go into groups (i was in the group of a couple of twats unfortunately) and carried the boat to the river. The safety briefing was pretty terrifying as there was some rapids that you could get into a few difficulties if you fell out. There was also a few cases where we needed to make the raft float on it's side. Nice.

We started out and the river was fairly fast flowing but quite wide. Our training continued with the guide telling everyone to jump out and practice what to do if we fell out during a run down some rapids. This was pretty scary as the water looked deep and cold!!! We had life jackets on and so you weren't under the water for long. Even so i wasnt prepared to swim down some rapids at that point!!! Everyone then took it in turns to pull someone back into the boat by their life jacket. It started to rain quite heavily but it didn't matter as we were wet and cold anyways.

We got to our first rapid. It was called hell's gate. I now know what it was given that name!!! We went over the rapid standing up!!! No one fell over and it was pretty straight forward. The next rapid wasn't so straight forward and I fell in. I was the only one, but i only floated a small way before being picked up again!!! (the guide later joked that she was suprised that anyone fell out of the easy ones and no one fell out of the difficult ones!!) The rapids got more and more difficult after that. The guide would shout out instructions before we ran the rapid and soon these instructions began with jump in the boat. This was the signal to sit in the bottom of the boat!!!

After around 3 rapids we stopped as some rocks had fallen in the river. This made crossing that rapid unsafe and so we climbed out of the raft and climbed across the rocks on the side of the river. This was no easy feat as they were slimy and high. This definitely added to the fear factor.

Soon after this rapid, the guide started to give us specific instructions on what to do if we fell in a particular rapid. Some of these scared the crap out of me as the basic theme was " do not fall in". The guide said that someone who had fallen out at one particular spot had broken a leg!!!

One of the biggest rapids we went backwards..... Another the raft sandwiched in two and we had to make sure we didn't break each other's noses.... Another was a steep drop (we watched beforehand as the raft in front basically disappeared in the distance!!!! For some of the rapids the first raft would stop and the guide would get out onto the rocks in the river and hold a through bag just in case someone fell in!!! (I was told by someone the day after that the day before some of the rafts got into difficulty and that the guides were caught unawares!!!!)

We ended up just outside the lodge. Our guide thought it would be funny if she capsized the boat on purpose. Everyone fell out and i was caught under the raft. Luckily there was some air underneath and i took a few breaths. The lifejackets were so good that i couldnt swim under the raft and so i had to wait while the others turned the raft over to let me out. Nice way to end the trip i thought. We were in the water for over 2 and a half hours and looking back it was a lot of fun.

We got some photo's and video of the experience and I'm having this sent home. All in all it was an amazing, if scary experience. I would definitely do it again. Maybe not on a grade 5 river though!!!!

http://www.whitewaterrafting.co.nz/