Wow..... Rangitata Rafts!

After the last few days of clocking up KM's in the car and visiting as many towns as possible including Ashburton, Geraldine, Winchester, Temuka, Timaru, Pleasant Point and Fairlie...... this included 1 night sleeping in the car as all these towns seem to slip into a coma after 5pm, Jo wanted to bang down the door of one motel to avoid the car but I didnt fancy being shot at by some disgruntled small town motel owner!

We arrived at the Rangitata Rafts lodge at around 10am which was also to be our home for the night and spent the first hour chatting to staff and our soon to be fellow rafters before being served our first meal of the day (Fresh salad and sandwiches were amazing after two weeks of coco pops and toast).

On with the elegant wetsuits and onto the bus for the 20 minute drive up the river to our starting point. The first 30 mins on the calm water were spent learning the commands and Yo (our wicked Japenese guide) explained plan A, B and yes there was a C too.... Jo's face was a picture when he talked us through B and C (both involved an unplanned trip into the glacial water).

A couple of grade 1 and 2 rapids soon came to ease us in.... then a grade three which was awesome but almost created a plan B situation (very funny!). A quick stop and climb up the banking to view the next two rapids which were both grade 5, you had the choice of walking past them with the photographer..... but everyone chose to continue! These were absolutely AMAZING!!! although in our minds the only command we heard was get down in the raft, its a good job Yo could stear by himself as he had no help from us!

The last 20 minutes were lovely calm stretches of water and 'Jump Rock' this was an 11 metre cliff jump into the deep river water below, the que of volunteers soon dwindled (including Jo) after the guide explained the potential back breaking risks (and yes a few people had broken their back doing it over the years)...... I on the other hand was stupid enough to go through with it! Great fun!!

Back to the lodge for a BBQ with the staff and our fellow rafters..... the staff are what made the trip so awesome, they are such a good laugh! If anyone is thinking of rafting in NZ..... do it at Rangitata Rafts!

The lodge was so remote that they had obviously decided locks were unimportant as there was not one in sight, its a good job the possoms scratching at the patio cannot operate a door handle! (I bet you can imagine Jo had an ace nights sleep!).

Next stop....... Queenstown!