Hey,

It's 1:22 pm now, I'm reflecting on one of the coolest things I've done this year. White Water rafting!

7/1/16 - I wasn't in a good anxiety place, my anxiety was whispering to me all these horrible things to scare me out of the trip. Working myself down, I still feel the familiar dread in the pit of my stomach, but my hearts stopped pounding.
3:30 pm - My parents, brother and I drive for Mohaka. Two hours of  eye-spy later, we're pretty much there.

The afternoon is spent with family members arriving, wind whipping our clothes, and my cousin asking me if I have a boyfriend for the 100th time. Darkness falls and we explore the glow worms down the side of the house, they sparkle like stars.

8/1/16 - Normally on the 3 day expedition  you begin with the helicopter, however with the wind being way too strong we were able to do the Grade 3 day trip instead. You get kitted up in togs, a fleece jersey, wet suit, booties and rain splash jackets. Stylish.
It was awesome. I jumped off a cliff, our raft nearly tipped, I got nailed by a waterfall, floated down on our life jackets, splashed the other rafts with our paddles, explored a miners cave with huge weta just chilling in there, listened to my 7 year old cousin crying because he fell in, and laughed the whole way.




9/1/16- We dribbled into base and packed our things into the barrels. By some miracle we left base in the van at 9 am. Whilst waiting for the helicopter I got cuddle attacked by three dogs who insisted on drooling on me. I hopped into the helicopter with my two younger cousins and aunty, and thank goodness Penny was there! She held my hand the entire way! It was so cool whizzing over top of the trees, and afterwards I wanted to go again. New raft teams were formed, I was with Harry Charlotte and Matthew, who we called ourselves A-Team, and sang for two days straight.

My older brother fell out of his raft, bless him! We landed at the campground and were served some great nachos. The camp ground has natural thermal hot pools to everyone's delight, and we camped down and set tents.






10/1/16 - A huge whoop woke me up, My dad yelling something about breakfast. Like slugs my brother and I crawl out of the tent to a cooked breakfast from the guides. We pack up and I jump into the hot pools with my wetsuit on, because why not, right? We set off again, for our last day of rafting.

The day is spent with beautiful scenery, our raft stuck on a rock, and more life jacket float swimming! The water was the temperature of icicles I swear, so when everyone else did the rapid swimming I opted out, but enjoyed watching.


THAT'S IT! I loved the entire experience so much, I'd encourage anyone to do it. My two youngest cousins Josh and Caleb are 7 and 9 and they loved it as much as my grandparents who are 69 and 70.

- georgia maree