The highlight of the trip was Kaituna whitewater rafting and its definitely worth the money. I was talking to the guide when we were on the shuttle to the river, he said that there are people who have done skydiving, bungy etc and were ok with it, but they shit their pants out during whitewater. I thought...is whitewater THAT scary?! And yes, it was THAT scary. I've done skydive, bungy, blackwater, trekking on ice glaciers...but whitewater is the one which really scared the hell out of me.
For bungy, skydive, you don't need to think. You just jump. You don't need to care about your own safety - the jump masters have already done that for you. Just jump. For whitewater, you better listen carefully, your safety is in your own hands. Maybe learning those safety precautions back in Odac made me extra cautious. There were simple commands during rafting - hold on, get down, stop, forward, back. But you gotta do it quick. Kaituna river is a grade 5 one, with a 7meters waterfall. The guide briefed us about what we should do in case of a capsize etc. He said we'll be below the raft in water, and we got to just hold on to it. The way to breathe is to pull yourself up to the base of the raft where theres air, they would climb on to the top of the raft and when they knock on it, we gotta let go, curl into a 'ball' and get flushed away by the water. By then, we would be out of the base of the raft and back to the surface. I thought it was a bit scary.. Huh? the raft needs to to 'float' back up to surface right.. how long? What if I really need to breathe? And the guide said.. 1 out of 4 raft capsizes.. I was like.. ok, thats quite possible that we would. I would like to cap, since its more exciting, but yet I still wanna live. I think what I was afraid most was that the water after the 7m drop would be as rough and saving wouldn't be easy.
Anyway, we just got on with it. The first drop was fun, 2m and 1m drop consecutively. The guides prayed to the river in their Maori way before we departed, and he said stuff about nature which...gave quite an impact on me. Over here, I often feel that they have companies for outdoor activities to not only make money, but because they really love it. You can feel it, that they really appreciate the nature and they take good care of it. After a few more rapids, the 7m waterfall was next. By then, I was kinda tensed, trying to remember everything the guide told us, to get into what kinda position etc. I told myself to open my eyes and look carefully. Look and feel it. They said another short prayer, we shouted, and we went. And freak! it was high! And before I could really see anything, the water practically 'collapsed' on us. Soon I couldn't see anything, I couldn't breathe and I was scared. The water was so strong, it was pushing me off the raft and I grabbed the rope and my paddle tightly - I was hanging on to my dear life. I tried to see what was happening but it was impossible, the water was just too strong and I felt my whole body flung backwards, I can't even sit in a straight position. We were in the water for some time, I thought we capped, but we didn't, soon I was able to breathe again and I was ecstatic. I'm glad that I'm alive. I realized that theres a gap below the waterfall. I can't remember whats that formation call,but you know, for waterfalls, due to the water which causes erosion, theres this big gap below. Yeah. That thing was scary. That wasn't it. We went through other rapids which weren't as high but exciting as well. The guide asked us to paddle towards the rapids and told me, 'honey, can you just walk to the front and squad there? hold on to the rope.' I was like..'huh? me?' 'Yeah, you.' 'ok.' I just listened and went to the front, in the middle. And I don't know what he did but the raft was totally tilted, the front was dipping right into the bottom of the rapids and the back wasn't even touching the water. The water gushed in and because I was in the middle and because I was in the front, the water was strong, cold and 'heavy'. And again, I felt that I couldn't breathe. After that, I gave him the..dots look. But the whole experience was real thrilling. I met a Japanese girl there as well, she is really brave, she looks young and she is backpacking alone! Oh.. so cool! I want to do that someday!
Thats her.. and our whitewater guide. I think they are damn cool!
We did other walks as well. Beautiful walks..
The Champagne Pool in Wai-O-Tapu, NZ's most colourful and diverse volcanic area
just a short walk from our place
We stayed in Funky Green backpackers, real small but clean. Had a small chat with an Israeli and German over breakfast. We talked about backpacking - He was into his 2nd month. He talked about how nice is diving in the Red Sea. I heard it as the 'Dead Sea'. So I said something real stupid - 'Won't you float?' Hahaha. Where is the Dead Sea anyways? I don't even remember! I should really learn the map before the next backpacking trip. We talked about skydiving and he said he will never step out of the plane unless it is on the ground. Haha what a good way to put it. When checking out, I had another chat with the host of the backpackers. I think he was from London and he had been to Singapore several times. And typical me, I started talking about Singapore without taking note of the time. And we were late for the bus! We ran like mad to the i-site. But thank god the bus was late.
Back in Auckland now, and finally, Carol is back from aust, YES! no more being alone! I feel safe once again. We had a real good dinner, done up by Carol and Rayvin. Last night, we were talking about religion, then we talked about ghosts and the supernatural stuff, suddenly she stopped and had this queer look. She wasn't looking at me, she looked past me. My heart literally skipped a beat. I turned over slowly, I didn't see anything. I looked at her again and she was staring hard at the door. I asked.. 'What?' And she looked back at me saying 'No la, I'm just checking if the door is lock.' WTH! I nearly strangled her. I don't know if I should laugh or not but I started tearing. And she laughed so badly. It wasn't funny! I had enough of all these 'freak-outs' the past few days! Too many alright! Along the streets, at home, at rotorua.
Just now, we were invited to a charity dinner by the UMNO. Can't remember what that stood for, some Malaysian thing. It was cool - at skycity hotel, $85pp, but we got in free cause we are volunteering for tmr's carnival. I didn't intend to go till the last minute. It was a formal dinner and just before the dinner we rushed back from the library and tried digging out some formal wear. My clothes weren't even ironed and there wasn't time for it. We just laughed like mad because we were ridiculously late with no clothes and frantically finding for something presentable. We poured all our accessories, make-up kit, clothes from the luggage and whatever not. I can't even rmb how to put on make-up. We just laughed like mad, hoping that we don't look silly at the dinner - you see what kiasu singaporeans would do for a free dinner. Anyway, my trench coat wasn't even ironed and we just kept saying that its gonna be dark and no one would notice the difference. We ran all the way to skycity with heels, down the slope and up the slope again. I tripped, I laughed, I just thought we looked ridiculous. By the time we reached the hotel, I saw the Guest of Honour walking in, and we raced with him to the entrance. By the time we got to our seats, I was dead tired. But the food was good - cheese platter, cold dishes - oyster, salad etc, hot food, deserts - dark and white cream chocolate cake with caramel swirls etc etc. And our table was crazy. Initially I felt damn stress when I saw all the utensils - different types of forks, knives and spoons. And I thought.. oh no.. its is THAT formal.. I thought I'm just gonna get a free dinner. But it was alright, I laughed like mad throughout but towards the end I was just so drained. Actually, I don't know what the whole dinner is about because everything was in MALAY. I just know that I had a $85 worth of dinner today!!!!
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