Day 11 – January 4:
Another new, big adventure day. A day which Molly was worried about…River Boarding. This apparently is a thing not just here, but other places to. When white water rafting just doesn’t cut it anymore, why not get rid of the boat and use a boogie board on Class 3 rapids instead? So, we learned a bit about this before we left home of course and specifically chose Level 2 difficulty (out of 3 levels) so we could be pushed some, but still feel safe. Well, back to that whole not trusting the travel agent thing again, our booking was Level 3 (f^&k!). The 40min drive to the river entrance gave enough time for the guides to get us nice and scared (except Caden who only got more excited). We dawned wet suites, boots, helmets, and a life jacket, grabbed our little boards and headed into an eddy for the safety demonstration. Lots of rules of how you manipulate this little board amongst this ragging river and not drown. How to avoid rocks, how to go under waves, how to get in and out of eddies, how to hold the main flow, how to do tricks, how to get back on when the river pulls you under, how to understand the guides hand signals, how to trust that you likely won’t die, and so on. It seems like much more instructions and practice are needed (days not minutes) before taking on the rapids we did. Molly was just about at her wits end until the main guide, Pav, took her aside and assured her he would stay with her. This guy was a badass Czech too; was definitely hung-over and looks like that guy always picking fights in the bar. But he knew his stuff for sure and held on to Molly the whole time (while sitting on his board and going backwards). The rest of us however were dunked, churned, beached on rocks, and flipped at the will of the river. Caden, of course, thought it was the coolest thing ever and not hard enough. So, he made sure we did the 6m rock jump at the end to cap it off. I also enjoyed it but admit it was really hard and am going to pay for it in the morning. Molly and Katy, only much after the fact, admitted it was cool and glad we pulled it off. But it was nuts.
We came back all tired and waterlogged (again, except Caden who was asking about when he could go Bungy Jumping), crashed in the hotel long enough to get changed and went to lunch. Fergburger is where we went; apparently a must do judging by the enormous line. Good food for sure. We had to fight some gulls to enjoy our burgers, but it was lovely all the same. After that, we stood in yet another long line (did I mention this place is crowded?) at Patagonia Ice Cream and Chocolate. Pretty worth the wait there too! Some gift shopping then just enjoyed thew rest of the day in our hotel chilling.
We are at the point in our trip that we are enjoying the breaks and just vegging when we can. The trip for sure has been intense and fun, but coming home is looking scary with work, school, and working through the logistics of Kay’s funeral. We need to make sure we find some time to relax before we are back to reality.
New Zealand Day 12
Another new, big adventure day. A day which Molly was worried about…River Boarding. This apparently is a thing not just here, but other places to. When white water rafting just doesn’t cut it anymore, why not get rid of the boat and use a boogie board on Class 3 rapids instead? So, we learned a bit about this before we left home of course and specifically chose Level 2 difficulty (out of 3 levels) so we could be pushed some, but still feel safe. Well, back to that whole not trusting the travel agent thing again, our booking was Level 3 (f^&k!). The 40min drive to the river entrance gave enough time for the guides to get us nice and scared (except Caden who only got more excited). We dawned wet suites, boots, helmets, and a life jacket, grabbed our little boards and headed into an eddy for the safety demonstration. Lots of rules of how you manipulate this little board amongst this ragging river and not drown. How to avoid rocks, how to go under waves, how to get in and out of eddies, how to hold the main flow, how to do tricks, how to get back on when the river pulls you under, how to understand the guides hand signals, how to trust that you likely won’t die, and so on. It seems like much more instructions and practice are needed (days not minutes) before taking on the rapids we did. Molly was just about at her wits end until the main guide, Pav, took her aside and assured her he would stay with her. This guy was a badass Czech too; was definitely hung-over and looks like that guy always picking fights in the bar. But he knew his stuff for sure and held on to Molly the whole time (while sitting on his board and going backwards). The rest of us however were dunked, churned, beached on rocks, and flipped at the will of the river. Caden, of course, thought it was the coolest thing ever and not hard enough. So, he made sure we did the 6m rock jump at the end to cap it off. I also enjoyed it but admit it was really hard and am going to pay for it in the morning. Molly and Katy, only much after the fact, admitted it was cool and glad we pulled it off. But it was nuts.
We came back all tired and waterlogged (again, except Caden who was asking about when he could go Bungy Jumping), crashed in the hotel long enough to get changed and went to lunch. Fergburger is where we went; apparently a must do judging by the enormous line. Good food for sure. We had to fight some gulls to enjoy our burgers, but it was lovely all the same. After that, we stood in yet another long line (did I mention this place is crowded?) at Patagonia Ice Cream and Chocolate. Pretty worth the wait there too! Some gift shopping then just enjoyed thew rest of the day in our hotel chilling.
We are at the point in our trip that we are enjoying the breaks and just vegging when we can. The trip for sure has been intense and fun, but coming home is looking scary with work, school, and working through the logistics of Kay’s funeral. We need to make sure we find some time to relax before we are back to reality.
New Zealand Day 12
