– FEBRUARY 27, 2015

As mentioned in yesterday’s Zorb post, today was white water rafting as the main activity.  We had actually booked the white water rafting for yesterday, but the company lost our reservation and when we showed up they were not prepared to take anyone out on the river.  The owner was not in when we arrived yesterday, so we had to wait for a phone call last night to get it all straightened out.  The owner, Pete, called last night and admitted that our confirmation e-mail had ended up in their junk folder by accident.  As such, he proposed we go out this morning with just the two of us, a guide and a safety employee rather than the regular 8 people in a raft…all this at no extra cost to make up for the misunderstanding yesterday.  We also received a reduced rate to make up for things.  We gladly accepted.

9:30am this morning we arrived at Pete’s home and got set-up in our gear, had a quick safety talk, then hit the road with Pete as our personal guide.  The river we rode is the Kaituna, which is one of the most popular white water runs in New Zealand.  It has the distinction of being the world’s highest commercially rafted waterfall.  It includes a 45 minute trip over fourteen drops, including the seven meter waterfall.  It is classified as a grade five river due to the seven meter waterfall.

On the first five meter waterfall I damaged my hip again when he hit the bottom hard.  I would estimate I went from 90% good to about 70% good.  It was worth it though…and the seven meter drop didn’t hurt at all.

See some of our photos below:

 

 

 

 

 

There are some more things to do here later today, then tomorrow we are moving on to a new town called Waitomo, with new adventures (perhaps a glow worm cave and also rappelling 100m down into a cave adventure called the “Lost World”.  Take care people…our accommodations next may not offer us access to power and internet, so the next postings may take a few days.

<><><><><><><><>

For more photos of our adventure go to our flickr account here.