Wet and wilderer

Rafting le matin dans une eau à 14°C avec une chute de 7 m (apparemment chute la plus haute dans un cadre touristique!). C'était super! On n'est pas tombé lors de la grosse chute, mais Dai et moi (on était devant) on est tombé ensuite lors d'une descente qu'on a pris de travers. Wow ce fut revigorant, un peu flippant de faire plein de tours sous l'eau dans la cascade et d'être emmenée par le courant. Un raft plus en avant m'a repéchée et Dai (qui est ressorti de l'eau bien après moi et a perdu un chausson dans l'action) a réussi à remonter sur notre raft. Donc du coup moi j'ai dû également sauter d'un raft à l'autre en plein courant!! Mais francement super!!!!! On a pris le CD de photos proposé car y'en a des collectors, mais on n'a pas de lecteur CDs donc vous les verrai plus tard.

This morning was an active one: rafting down a grade 5 river which included a 7 m waterfall. We were told that this is the largest waterfall on a commercial rafting trip in the world...but of course they're going to tell you that! We had an amazing time with the only slight worry being when we were slightly turned around by a rapid, bounced of a rock and Séverine and I were thrown into the waters! It took me a good moment or two to come up to the surface as I went through the proverbial washing machine then...light...swim to boat...gasp for air...where's Sév?...she's floating off down river, already 10 m from me...haul myself into boat (with lots of help from boat mates)...lost my shoe!!!...PAAADDLE!!! A few crazy moments but everything turned out fine. Sév got picked up by another boat downstream from us, someone threw me a shoe, but it was two sizes too large. We never found mine...

We bought a CD of photos taken by one of the crew at various sections of the river but neither of us having a CD drive on our computers, you're going to have to wait to see what they look like!

Ensuite ce fut aprem relax avec une visite du site geothermique Hell's Gate (la porte du diable), un bain de boue, encore un spa, et une visite de la ville de Roturua avec son musée, ses quartiers Maoris et son très beau lac.

Mud spa in the afternoon and visit to the Hell's Gate geothermal park. Yep, we paid good money to sit around in mud! All good fun though!

That evening we visited Rotarua, which has a very beautiful museum and some other interesting sights. We ate at a Burger Fuel restaurant, a chain of gourmet fast-food style restaurants, which several of our friends have raved about. The food was good, certainly a lot better than found at McD's or Burger King.