Kaituna River: Foolhardy Waterfall Rafting

Time for our first death defying activity in NZ: white water rafting.

When Heather visited NZ back in 2002 she andher good friend Amberrafted the Kaituna River and lived to tell the tale. We even have the framed pictures hanging up in our house in Saskatoon to prove it. I say "lived to tell the tale" because it really is a dangerous rafting trip. The Kaituna River officially has the highest waterfall that you're allowed to commercially raft down: 7 meters in height. When the guide tells you to hold on, you'd better do just that!!

Less than 3 seconds later we were horizontal again on calm waters hooting and hollering that we made it with everyone still inside the raft.

The whole trip supposedly lasts 45 minutes, but like most of NZ's activities, it feels like a lot less. There's the obligatory safety discussion at the beginning, followed by a Maori prayer thanking the river or something like that. The Maori's were big into praying to things existing in nature. That's all well andgood, but it does sound kind of funny to hear some white guy speaking Maori going on about the feelings that the river has. No offence to Maori's or Maori wannabees intended.

Once the basic lessons and prayers were over we hit the river. The guides are generally cool guysand you can tell they're probably big party animals at the end of the day.At one point our guidescooped up some river foam, smeared it onto the helmit of one of our boat mates (hiAnastasia if you ever read this), and then licked it off her helmit! To each their own I guess.

The actual waterfall is close to the end of the route. All of the rafts stop just short of the waterfall to psych up the rafters. Following another Maoriprayer praising the waterfall, we paddled two strokes and "GOT DOWN!!!!" I remember getting a bit nervous in the instant that our raftcrossed over the edge in it's tripfrom horizontalityto verticality (Iknow those aren't real words), but it's too late to do anything other than go over the edge.Less than3 secondslater we werehorizontal againon calm waters hooting and holleringthat we made it with everyone still inside the raft. Thetrip down thefalls waswild. So much fun. Heather was in the middle of the raft and I waswith our guide at the back. I can still thinkback to the sensation of being vertical and holding on for dear life as tons of water crashed around us.We both wanted to go again and again and again.

I remember seeing a sign somewhere saying, "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened". Heather and I were all smiles afterthat.

Michaeland Heather