Day 2 Christchurch, New Zealand

This morning we got up at 6:30am and had brekky at Maccers. Next door in a giant green building, which used to be a meat or diary plant, is the headquarters for Wildwest Adventure - the river rafting tubing activity. We were also with an older couple from Britain who have lived in Christchurch for the past 3 years, and this Japanese kid who didn't speak English very well. He's been studying here for the past 10 months and is at the end of his exchange. The Japanese kid was so skinny that our guide - Pete - had him put on two sets of wetsuits to stay warm. The six of us and Pete suited up for the day. One pair of pant thermals, three top thermals, wool socks, wetsuit socks, wetsuit bottom, wet suit top, wetsuit boots, a cap thing, a helmet, and wetsuit gloves. After we signed our lives away and had all of our equipment we got into a van and drove about 25-30minutes to Neelson River, maybe? We entered through a cow farm and were greeted by a bull who stood in the entrance to the farm land where his cows were grazing. It was a brief show down, although we did think he was going to charge us because he bent his head down and got into position, but he moved off. Once at the river we put on our helmets on, picked up some black inner tubes, and proceeded down a path which was kind of dodgey. Wet mud, sticks, roots, and rocks made the walk adventurous. Once we got down to the river we walked up it a ways cutting through the rapids back and forth between banks. I was surprised that Pete never instructed us about the white water safety position that I learned in class just in case we were swept away by the fast moving water

Once we got far enough up the river Pete showed us some basic tubing maneuvers and we gave it a go.We had to place the tube under our butts, turn around, and lean back falling into the water.The scenery was pretty cool.There was a rock wall on the right side of the river that had soft green moss on it, so when you got brushed against it or had to press against it to maneuver it was soft.Otherwise there were rocks everywhere.It kind of reminded me of tubing down the Chip River back at school.I'm pretty seasoned at keeping the buttocks up when going through rapids and when I see rocks, but mum and auntie found out the hard way.The water wasn't as high as expected, so there were a few instances where we had to get up out of the water and walk a to get back in again.Of course Pete spiced the trip up by giving us challenges of running and jumping into the water, or going on faster rapids.Once we tubed a ways we got to this cave where we could slide down this rock embankment on a piece of plastic.It was optional, and we would have to pay our own medical bills if we were injured, but Aunt Christine and I did it.

After that we went inside the cave where we could see glow worms on the ceiling.It was pitch black except for the light coming from the entrance of the tunnel.The water was super cold as well.The clothing helped, but it still seeped into the booties and inside the wetsuit. After some hot chocolate and a candy bar and some knowledge about the glow worms: they're larva, will be that way for 9 months, the light is actually what they've pooped which they use to attract mosquitoes and other flying insects that get sucked into the cave due to the waterfall at the other end.The worms have sticky stuff they use to capture the bugs as the bugs think the light is a way out of the tunnel, then the worms suck the juices out of them.

Once we got out of the cave we had another option to jump off this ledge into the water on our tube.I was shivering cold and opted out.Darrel, the British guy, was the only one to do it.We then walked back to the van and returned to base.After we stripped our wetsuit and accessories off we went to the "spa" - which was a simple hot tub.And were served blueberry muffins and cordial.Showers were available for cleaning and we were free to go.The hot tub felt so nice and warmed us up.We then left Greymouth and drove back to Christchurch, stopping at some scenic overlooks for picture opportunities.