Saturday 10 November 2007

Queenstown NZ(White-Water Rafting)







Pam was not at all sure she wanted to do this, but after much soul-searching, decided to give it a go(well done gal!!)
Arrived at the site (same river as I did my bungy on!) and guided by a couple of really funny Kiwi's who put everyone at ease and were obviously experienced guys in their early 30's(one had guided in Africa on the Zambezi!!).
Split up into 2 teams and proceded down the river in tandem. First a small rapid, then a bigger one and then the "Chinese Dog-Leg"(weird name for a real biggy of a wave!). The gorge was just superb..huge cliffs on either side and lots of wild life to watch as the calm sections in between rapids gave us some peace and respite.
Got to do a jump in from the cliff side as well. This river's excellent as it's a big volume job and this is definitely the best time to raft(their spring).Later in the year, it starts to drop in level(their mid-summer). Apparently 300 cubic metres a second flow past any one point(equivalent to 13 tons pressure)....so we needed ropes thrown out to us to drag us back in after we'd jumped!!



At the end of the day Pam wanted to do more and thoroughly enjoyed the experience......far more than she ever imagined she would.