Hi all,

We arrived in Rotorua and just like Wai-O-Tapu, it stunk...! But it seemed like a really nice place. We had a good look around the town and I had decided that I was going to go White Water Rafting and Zorbing over the next couple of days to end my trip with. I was really pleased about this because once I had completed these activities, I would have completed all of the activities that I had on my to-do-list that I planned before leaving to go traveling. This included scuba diving, skydiving, bungy jumping, white water rafting and zorbing..! So it seemed perfect to complete them during my last week of travel.

We ended up booking the white water rafting and zorbing with a lovely and quirky New Zealand lady called Jodie for a bargain price of $100 and by the end of the sale we had also negotiated to camp at the bottom of her garden for two nights. This was magic as she lived right in the town centre and we didn't have to drive miles out of town to find somewhere to sleep. She was lovely and offered us showers and breakfast, we kindly declined as we didn't what to impose too much.

The following day was the white water rafting adventure with Kaitiaki Whanau. As soon as you arrived it was nuts. The staff were so loud and full of male testosterone shouting whoo woo, sweet bro, yaaaaa at top volume all the time. It was really good as it got you in the right mood from the off. It wasn't long before I was fully wet suited up and what not with the sexiest skid lid on and ready to drive up to the Kaitiaki river. During the journey down to the river one of the rafting guides was telling us how the river was formed, which was by the laver flow of an erupting volcano and what the Moauri word Kaitiaki means etc etc At top volume of course and with 'whoo woo' and 'yeah' interjected ever two minutes.

We arrived at the river and split into three rafts and had a quick instructions lesson, this is where a few nerves crept in. I've been white water rafting on grade 4 rapids in Kenya and it was very scary however, on this river we were going to be going down a 7m waterfall....!

After the lesson we walked down to the waters edge and we paid homage to the river and its history and important to the Maori people, said a traditional Maori prayer. One of our guides helped a girl into the raft and then pushed the raft into the river. All the boys had to dive into the water and swam to the raft...! This made me laugh. Off down the river we went soaking water.

It was really fun and it wasn't long before we were at the first of the three waterfalls that we were going to travel down. So the calls were screamed out, "forward paddle, forward paddle, get down...!" You then had to get into position quickly and hold on for dear life. It was such a rush going down the first waterfall and the second, that was bigger, was just around the corner. Luckily we landed both falls and no one was chucked overboard and had to be rescued.

We carried on down the river and through various different rapids and had loads of tom foolery too. Splashing all the other boats, half inching their paddles, pulling them out of the raft and into the river, it was a good laugh. We even had to rescue one of the other boats guides from a tree.

There was a little calm before the storm and we were briefed for the big one. The largest commercially rafted waterfall in the world. We were going to be first which meant that there wasn't anyone to rescue us if we flipped and we had to look after ourselves. I was at the front of the boat which meant that once we had paddled to the lip of the waterfall and in position to hold on for dear life, my job was to smile throughout as I was the face of the raft in all the pictures while travelling down the waterfall. After the briefing and the hacka screamed at top volume to sych us up, we went for it. The rush was immense..! and by some miracle we didn't flip the raft either, it was excellent. Once we had completed the fall we waited at the bottom for the other rafts and rescue any 'man over boards'. It was excellent to watch and until I saw another raft coming down the waterfall I didn't realise how big it was. The whole raft gets submerged under the water too which I didn't realise when I was completing it myself.

We carried on down the river and other numerous rapids. The scenery was spectacular with all the trees and silver ferns growing on the volcanic rock. I felt at times like I was floating down a river in the Amazon. It had been a quality day and I thoroughly enjoyed the white water rafting experience. Better than that, it was Tuesday (eating out day) so it was a large Domino's pizza for tea and a movie and camping at the bottom of Jodie's garden again.

Zorbing

We turned up at the site to watch the zorbing for a bit before having a go ourselves and in all honesty I watched the Zigzag route and it looked really tame and ended in a flash so I thought that the whole experience was going to be a total anti-climax. But we had paid and while in Rome and all that... We had booked to do a joint Hydro Zorb and after speaking to a couple of the Zorb participants we had decided that the zigzag zorb was the way forward and the better of the two options. However, we had been umming and erring about not doing the joint zorb. I had had visions of being bashed around in the zorb and kneeing Becki in the face and breaking her nose or giving her a black eye or something.  To be fair I didn't want to be known as a women beater for the rest on my life! We were having a conversation by the reception and the employee was giving us some advise and he then said "well if you want to do it separately, he would upgrade us for free". Lovely jubbly, so we decided to go separately and we could now take pictures of each other too. Becki is one of the most jammiest people I now.....! These kind of things just happen to her all the time, it's bizarre, however I wasn't complaining for another $20 saving.

Well it was a quick change of clothes as the Hydro Zorb involved a big inflatable ball, a large hill and a bucket of water, I was going to get wet. Right from the start it was excellent. I jumped into this off road vehicle and we sped up the dust track listen to the Kooks. He told me to hold on and before I could I had hit the ceiling, it was an proper off road experience and I loved it.

At the top, there was a huge Zorb ball waiting for me and a tiny entrance hole. He told me to take a run up and superman dive through the entrance. So I did and to my utter surprise, face first into a pool of water. I got soaked through. It was weird being in the Zorb ball. It was a fairly small inner ball that you are in and you can't see anything other than the sphere that you are in. It was pretty disorientating and spooky. Before I had entered the Zorb, I had decided that I was going to try and run it. Since 1993, only 5 people had run the hydro zigzag zorb route all the way to the end but I thought it would be more fun to give it a go.

So I was ready. He shouted through, "When you hear me hit the ball twice, run like hell in that direction!".  Simple enough I thought. BANG BANG and off I went as fast as I could. It was great fun, I didn't have a clue were I was and there was water splashing everywhere. A little further and I was running with my hands too and suddenly the sphere just stopped. Unfortunately for me, I didn't and I went face first into the zorb. It was like hitting a brick wall and a shooting pain went straight down my neck. I didn't have a scooby do where I was. I was just lying on my back in a pool of water being thrown around like a sock in a washing machine. I was so disorientated and every now and then I would see the blue sky for a second and that was the only time I knew I wasn't upside down. I had to wriggle my toes to make sure I hadn't broken my neck and check my nose to ensure it wasn't bleeding. Although I was being throw around like a rag and in pain, I was in hysterics. I couldn't stop laughing and the ride seemed to be never ending. You just had no control in there, it was like a cross between a rollercoaster and a waterfall. The ride finally came to an end and I didn't know where I was as the door opened I had to squeeze out feet first. It was like being reborn again with all the water gushing out with you!

It was one of the best activities I have completed while I've been away and surprisingly one of the scariest too, it was far from tame as I first thought. It had been quality fun and I couldn't stop laughing. It was time for Becki's go - good luck....!

Bye for now

Miffy x x x