We left Taupo at 7am to travel to river valley. We stopped for a 15 minute walk to a waterfall and then carried on the journey. To be honest I slept most the way which was surprising as the roads winding the whole way there.

We arrived at river valley lodge which is located on the Rangitikei river and booked into my six bed dorm. This was after we had to walk down such a steep hill that the bus couldn't drive down. I wasn't looking forward to walking back up it in the morning! It was a treat not to have a metal frame squeaky bunk bed and instead a wooden one and I was on the bottom which was a bonus.

I decided to go white water rafting. It's a grade 5 river. We got given our gear at 1.30pm and had to wear on top of our swim suits, a long sleeve shirt, fleece, wetsuit, boots, jacket and helmet. It was my second time getting in a wetsuit this week and was getting easier but the guy did have to pull the last bit on and another had to help me put my boots on, I must play damsel in wetsuit distress well!! Can't say its a good look but sure I'll be back in one having surf lessons in Australia later in the trip.

We jumped on the bus to take us to the start of the river. When we got there we had a safety chat and split into groups. I was in a group with two people on my bus (Nicole from Canada and Johan from Germany) and then 4 American military guys, who were lovely and so American (high fives all round after each rapid, 'yeah buddy'!)

Our guide taught us the basic commands, front paddle, back paddle, jump right, jump left, get down and hold on and then we made our way down to the river. I was towards the back of the raft with the 4 American guys at the front. As we made our way to the first rapid one of the American guys fell out the raft which made me think if he fell out then I definitely would!

The whole rafting trip took about 2 and a half hours. We were a heavy boat so smashed through the rapids a lot deeper than the two other boats. Our guide was awesome and shouted at the right moment for us to get down or paddle hard. He seemed to shout at me more than most, I lost my paddle at one point and every time we got down in the boat I couldn't jump back into my position well so I was just stuck at the bottom of the raft like a right prat!

It went so quickly and I loved it, would definitely recommend it and doing it in a place like the river valley was a good choice as the scenery was beautiful, there were some parts where I didn't feel like I was drowning and could have a look around!

We got back to the lodge, had showers to warm up although it was a lot warmer than the cave water and then we went to have a drink and look at the photos that were taken along the way. I bought the photos that came on a memory stick so will show you when I'm home! I look petrified throughout and my face looks like I think I'm going to be thrown out at any second! But unlike one of the American guys I didn't fall out the raft and the photos are hilarious so a good reminder of the trip!

I then cooked tea, just pasta, I'm starting to feel like a student again! Then we had a few drinks and chatted in the lodge. There was a 60th birthday party going on where they were having a meal and drinking, they were all doing tequila shots and we convinced the birthday man to do a tequila suicide shot where you snort the salt up your nose, drink the tequila and squeeze the lemon in his eye, needless to say he only did it once! Haha.

Then it was to be as the alarm was set for 6.30am to make our way to Wellington.