An unexpected journey or splash mountain

We awoke in judges pool to the sound of rain, heavy rain. For once that didn't matter as today was to be white water rafting day. I had been talked into the level two experience, much against my better judgement. Level two is for small children and old people, what can go wrong? We arrived at Rafting New Zealand at the allotted hour and handed over our booking reference. The girl behind the counter smiled and rushed off, something is wrong here I thought. She came back with a young man who introduced himself very perkily as Luke (or mr muscles as Chris liked to call him). Luke explained that the level two had been switched to later in the day some time ago but as Vicky had given them the wrong e-mail address they must not have been able to contact us. He then went on to query why we would opt for such a lame trip when we could do level three, a much more exciting experience, and hey he could fit us in at 1pm, and he would only charge a fraction of the additional cost as it was a more expensive experience. Much against my better judgement the deal was done, Luke shook hands on it and said he would see us later. We left with 'don't worry, you'll love it' ringing in our ears.

We had planned to visit a waterfall and Mount Doom in the afternoon so decided to do that in the morning instead, especially as the rain was very intermittent. We drove into the Tongariro national park, which as Chris said is more Jurassic park than Jurassic park. Mount Doom was almost visible, although the top was shrouded in cloud. We reached the waterfall car park in light rain and set off down the track, but before we arrived the heavens opened and we got drenched. The falls were nice though.

At the allotted time we arrived back at rafting new Zealand and joined a party of 39 for the level three experience. We all donned wetsuits, life jackets, and Helmets and were taught how to stay alive, not encouraging. Then we climbed aboard a bus that took us to the head of the gorge. We found that our family and a young German girl called Sarah were in Captain Jack's raft. We dragged the raft to the waters edge, jumped in, and got some instruction on how to paddle  and how to follow Jack's instructions. Heart in mouth we headed for the first rapids. Forward, forward, stop, hold on, backward, get down, yelled Jack in a sergeant major manner. Over the top and down the rapids we went and to my amazement I found that White water rafting, level three, is my favourite sport. We traversed several rapids before Jack yelled 'who wants to jump off a cliff!'. 'YES ME' I yelled. We beached the raft and rushed up to the top of a 15 foot rock. 'GO' yelled Jack at each of us in turn, and before I knew it I was hurtling into the freezing water while screaming at the top of my voice. Some people wouldn't do the cliff jump. Chickens. Off we went again over ever more challenging rapids, ramming into walls, spinning around, and generally having a wonderful time. Captain Jack proved to be a great captain and we proved to be a great crew. Other rafts got stuck on rocks and had people fall out, but not us. 'You guys are awesome, paddle high five' yelled jack. 'Woo hoo' we all yelled back, while waving our paddles in the air. Unfortunately our time on the water drew to a close all too soon. 'We are coming up to photo canyon' said Jack. 'When I say hold on, hold on with one hand only, wave your paddles in the air, and pose for the camera.' I got so carried away I found myself holding on with no hands while waving my paddle manically in the air as we bounced down the last rapid. 'I think you guys are ready for level five' said a proud Captain Jack as we beached our raft for the last time. 'Awesome, bring it on' I said!

Now I know that all you people at home will be reading this with disbelief, requiring proof that these events actually happened. Well i forecast just such a reaction and made Ian open his wallet and buy the official photos, and here they are. Enjoy.