The day, as every other day on this trip, started bright and early. The weather was beautiful, thankfully. The first order of business today, white-water rafting. We headed to the station and got suited up in a two piece wetsuit, booties, an overjacket, and a helmet. Yes, its gonna be a cold one, in the water at least.
Well, after we suited up, it was off to a landing pad for another thing to check off my list of things to do...a helicopter ride. We rode the helicopter up and over the mountains to our starting spot for rafting. It was short, but definitely worth it.
Next was the rafting briefing. A bunch of common sense, well for people that understand english. Then, it was time to get into groups for the rafts. My group abandoned me, so I was stuck with a bunch of girls and two asians...not that I'm complaining about the girls. They were still part of our large group of people from AustraLearn that met up in Queenstown. Only one of them had been white water rafting before though.
Overall, the white water rafting was fun. The rapids were definitely not as strong as the ones I rafted on before. The water was freezing cold. There were two opportunities for us to jump out and ride the rapids, and I definitely wasn't going to be a wimp and not jump out. I convinced the raft guide to try and flip the raft, but we were unsuccessful. At one point, he tried to knock the front two people on the right side of the raft out, but it just so happened that those two were me and the other girl that had been white water rafting before, so we were better than that.
After rafting, we had a total of 10 mintues to get changed and report to our next part of the day, the Jetboat. The jetboat was fun. It was definitely a new experience. Basically, rideing the jetboat was like riding a rollercoaster, but on the water. Here is a youtube video of what the jetboat ride was like:
Also, here are some photos of the group of us that were in Queenstown:
The final event of the day was by far the best part of the day. It was the event that I had been both looking forward to and dreading since I signed up for it. Only two other places in the world have bragging rights over this one. One is in South Africa, the other is in Asia somewhere. Anyway, we were all checked in, processed, and marked. We then took a long bus ride to the event. There, we were given all of our gear and headed out to the viewing area.
Five of us were called first and we took the suspenseful journey to the platform. There, we put on some more gear. Then, it was my turn. I got the opportunity to go first, not that I had a choice. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. I was scared to death. But I kept telling myself that it would be worth it in the end. I can't back out now. They attached the rest of the equipment to me, and I inched out to my impending fate. My friends on the platform gave me some encouraging words. It was time. With the "Other Side" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers playing (sorta fitting I guess), the guy counted down, 5 4 3 2 1...
Yep, that's right, I did it. It was scary, exhilarating, and got my adrenaline to an all time high. One experience that I will probably never repeat in my life. What a way to end the day!
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