Its my mums birthday! Happy birthday mum!
We slept surprisingly well considering we were sharing a room with so many people. We had to fold the sleeping bags, stack our mattress and head for breakfast in the hall. It was eggy bread or French toast depends how posh you want to sound.
Today me and Lee (I just can't bring myself to write Lee and I) so anyway we're heading to Rotorua to do white water rafting down a 7m waterfall. After breakfast we were on the bus and before we knew it we were at the rafting place. We paid $95pp then got changed into our swim wear. We got gum boots, aka wellies, a helmet and jacket. We had to get on another bus to get to the river. Straight away I was told to jump in the boat as it was pushed off a big embankment. Lee had to jump in the water and pull himself in with the others.
Our guide was a bit of a loon. He asked for a group chant so Lee chose 'I don't know but I've been told' then something about an Eskimos cat being cold.... He borrowed it from the film full metal jacket.
The guide fell in the water first because he jumped out the boat onto a tree and the tree snapped. He was trying to use it like a swing but it was a fail. He said he didn't like getting bored in the raft so after we'd raised our paddles and shouted the thing back to him about the Eskimos cat he made us stand in the raft over the first smallish waterfall.
The river we were floating down was beautiful. It was in between 2 huge rock faces covered in trees. A few times we had to duck to stop from losing our heads!
The big waterfall was scary. They tell you the security, health and safety talk. The whole 'what to do if you feel like your drowning'... They even pull in the embankment and give you a 'last chance' to walk out! Ha we didn't! We went over and down - right under the water, then finally popped back out! No one had fallen out and we were the right side up. Woo hoo. The guide said 'right we're going to get our picture took now. After 3, jump out the boat' jumping out was easy but getting back in is hard! You get dunked then yanked in by your life jacket. They dunked me but got a little carried away pulling me up and I ended up with my face an inch from Lee's crotch. I was shouting 'STOP STOP I'm on the boat!!!
The guide told me to go to the front of the boat and kneel up like Kate Winslet in the Titanic..... He steered the raft back in the rapids so the front of the raft went under.... I got drowned, numerous times! A little further down the river we had a surfing competition. We had to see who could stand the longest over the rapids. Lee was the first to go. As he fell he booted me right up the bum which knocked me in the boat rather than out so bonus I didn't fall in again!
Lee pulled himself back onto the raft no problemo. Before we knew it the rafting was over and we were back at the office waiting to head off on the Stray bus. My stomach muscles and arms were so tired and we were so hungry. We had to wait until the next stop, Huka falls, to treat ourselves to a bar of chocolate whilst taking a few pics of the water fall. Apparently every 3 seconds enough water flows through the falls to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool!
We drove from here to Taupo. Taupo is quite a built up little town. We did our shop to last us the next couple of days then sat in the bar to have some chili con carne (the hostel did chili and a drink for $7pp) then we waited for Beanz, the driver, to turn up. He drove us to a natural hot spring. Everyone had took a couple of drinks so we all stripped to our swimwear them jumped in the water and sat around chatting with a beer. Some parts were scalding then you could stretch your legs and your feet would be in a cool area. Lee made friends with a couple of Mauri lads who had come here to chill out at the end of the day. The lads were laughing at everyone getting out because we all looked like we were being roasted. I was bright red! Like when you get out of a roasting hot bath.
I was listening to Lee telling the lads a story and you could see the culture difference. Lee looked so animated next to their bare minimum movement... i know lee animated? god help me speaking to them! I chose to not join that convo haha
When we got back we got a shower and headed to the bar around the corner. Beanz had jelly shots waiting for us and the drinks were buy one get one free $5 bargain!
I felt like the mum. No one was on the dance floor so I grabbed Melissa (my 18 year old Dutch friend) and Trish (27 from Inverness) and we boogied on down on the dance floor. By the second song the dance floor was chocca! It got abit awkward when dubstep came on and 3 girls started going for it. They looked like they were down with dubstep were as I was just dancing to Cindy Lauper so felt like the ballet dancer girl in save the last dance trying to learn hip hop. I slowly slid towards lee to throw my secret shapes!!! The robot works with dubstep. It might not look like ya typical 'pimpin' moves for dubstep but it works!
After the dancing I went to say bye to Trish but before I'd got to the bye in my goodbye she said 'can I come with you? I want to go back, I'm tired'. Me and Lee weren't the only ones who were shattered. Melissa came too. We tried not to make too much noise in our 16 bed dorm when we got back but the bunk beds were really noisy plus Lee was a little bit drunk and insisted on finding a plug to charge his iPad and woke people up by shining the torch on them asking if they were asleep.