White Water Rafting New Zealand – Grade 5

We have always wanted to do white water rafting, and again, no where else better to do it than White Water Rafting New Zealand.

But so anyway, we decide to go for a 5 star (most challenging) white water rafting adventure at Kaitiaki Adventures.  Unfortunately we did not manage to capture any photos of the adventure in action. We didn’t buy the professional pictures taken by them as we thought it was kinda of too expensive. But on hindsight, maybe we should have. Oh well..

It was quite interesting how much efforts they paid in really respecting the river. Before we raft off, our guide made us stand by the edge of the river, with our heads bowed down, while he made a prayer of respect for the river.

So anyway, the main exciting part of this adventure was the 6m high waterfall that our raft had to go through! Our raft would be totally vertical as it goes down the waterfall! The picture below’s the exact same place that we did ours, just that it’s not us.

Getting ready to raft off!
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Photo credit:  www.cheapestwaytotravelhq.com
So our guide told us that there’ll be 2 scenarios for this.
1. Our boat goes down vertical, enters the water and returns back up to the surface in a normal upright position, with everyone intact in the boat.
2. Our boat goes down, enters the water and capsizes. And that was exactly what happened to our boat.

We were given some steps to follow as we approached the waterfall. Obviously there was not much time to think and before we know it, we were already plunging down and next thing we knew, we were already submerged underwater beneath the raft.  But thankfully, nobody from our raft got injured.

Another raft wasn’t as lucky though. In fact that raft consisted of more elderlies and when they went down the waterfall, we held our breath as we watched, and then up they come, their raft did not capsized and everybody cheered for them! But suddenly at the corner of our eyes, we saw someone floating! Apparently an elderly lost her footing as the boat went down and was swept away by the river! They brought her back up to the boat but her nose started to bleed real bad! Luckily the bleeding stopped after some time. Apparently she did not manage to tuck her head in time as they went down the waterfall and ended up hitting her nose on her husband’s helmet in front of her! Poor her! Must have hurt real bad :/

That said, this shouldn’t stop you from wanting to try white rafting! It’s really thrilling especially when the rapids  get  too fast.

Essential Info
Kaitiaki Adventures, based in Rotura, NZ.
Kaituna River  (Grade 5)
Approx $99/pax

 

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