The World's Largest Commercially Rafted Waterfall

Posted by Emily

And we went down it! Yes, that's right. The kiwis are so crazy for an adrenaline rush that they even run their water sports in the winter (well, some of them anyway). Yesterday afternoon we were the crazy tourists who squeezed into wet suits and fleeces (also booties, life jackets and helmets, parents!), had a short paddling lesson, and took off down the Kaituna River in rafts.

The river itself was quite beautiful surrounded all around by trees, ferns and other such green plants. The water either reflected these colors or was naturally the emerald green color of the surrounding vegetation. We went over a few rapids that were quite wild, but the highlight, and the purpose I think, of the rafting trip was to experience going down the waterfalls. They aren't as scary or as dangerous as they sound because one of the moves we learned during our paddling lesson was "get down", which means hold onto the ropes, squat down in front of your bench and duck your head. This keeps you from getting seriously hurt on the waterfalls, at least in theory. We first went down a 3 meter (I think a meter is about as long as a yard?) waterfall, during which I got SOAKED because I was in front, and let me tell you, the stream we were on is not fed by a hot spring!. The second was one meter, and we paddled right through that one. Then it was time for the 7 meter waterfall! Not as scary as I thought it would be but very very wet! There is a photographer that follows the boat and got completely submerged, but luckily didn't flip or lose anyone over the side as the boat after us did.

After this there were a few more rapids and right before the end, our guide decided to take us river surfing, which pretty much meant that a few people gathered in the front, everyone else paddled back into the rapids and the front of the raft got dunked under water. Kind of funny to watch and not very fun when you are the one being dunked in the water! There were also pictures of this taken, but sadly they wanted to sell us a CD of all the pictures from NZ$40, which turns out to be 2/3 of that in US$. We thought that was pretty ridiculous so we didn't buy one.

We were obviously quite chilled after this so after making dinner, we headed to the nearby Polynesian Spa, which has a variety of outdoor thermal pools ranging from 28-42 C. We got a free pass for buying our tickets to the hangi so we decided to take advantage. It was so nice to be submerged in water that was warm instead of cold and a very nice way to thaw out. We had a nice view of the lake from the steaming pools, and would have had a nice view of the sky if it hadn't been so cloudy. I have yet to get a clear look at the Southern Hemisphere's sky. Soon we will be heading south to the less populated (and snowy!) South Island, so I have high hopes for good views of the sky there.