Sorry to just blast through my whole "chronological order" theory, but I just remembered this and want to get it down before I forget. How sad is that??
A month or so before we moved home, we had an epic vacation. Down to Whakatane, and then back through Rotorua, where we did the Zorb and a half a day of Grade 5 rafting. The Zorb is this awesome thing that's basically a human hamster ball. You can either be strapped in and roll with the ball, or have them put water in it and slide in the ball. Then they either push you down a straight or curving hill, and you get flipped around and slide all over the place and get soaked and dizzy. (This picture is not us, by the way, but it is courtesy of hakatours.com)
Seth and I chose to do the water one,
because I'm pretty sure we weren't allowed to do the strapped in one. They push you through a little opening in the side of the ball, and zip you in with a little bit of warm water (only when it's cold out). Then, they push you down this twisting course, and you see how long you can stand up without dying. :D When you get to the bottom, extraction is a little like being born, but feet-first. It's great fun, and really interesting to think that you're basically in a hamster ball, and only you can hurt yourself...
After we Zorbed, we drove to a place where we went rafting. It was insanely cool, because we did Grade 5 rafting, which is the highest commercially raftable river there is. Seth and I may or may not have gotten a little scared right before we left, when the guide was telling us about this one waterfall where there was a 50% chance we would flip, and what to do if we did. We got the "white knuckle" talk, about how to get in the raft and hang on for dear life when we were going over a waterfall, and how to tuck our chins so we wouldn't damage our spines. When we finally got on the river, we were all pretty excited. Imagine floating down a clear, cold river, surrounded by the most incredibly gorgeous bush you can imagine (except for the Milford Sound), and also having to pay CLOSE attention to what's happening so you don't get thrown out of the raft! There were some pretty intense rapids, and there was a lot of insane rowing to make sure we didn't go down at the wrong angle, where flipping would be dangerous. We got to a certain little waterfall that bucked like a bull, even though it didn't look like it. After we went down, the guide told us to turn the boat around, and then to get down. He paddled us up to the waterfall, and stuck the nose of the raft in the water! The raft bucked around, and they called it "surfing". Seth had to hang on really well, because he was at the front, and also on downside, and in danger of falling out backwards. After a couple shots at this, we moved on. There was a clear, calm spot in the river, and the guide invited us to get out and swim. I think I may have surprised him a little when I jumped in. Then I saw the upcoming rapids, and decided I had better mosey on back into the raft.... Don't worry, I made it! There was one main waterfall on the trip and it is seven metres high (that's 21 feet, all y'all Americans here)! When we finally came to it, I will be perfectly honest, I was a bit shaky. But then there was no going back, and we were all tucked in the raft, chins down, white-knuckled hands holding the ropes and our paddles . When we hit the water at the bottom, after what seemed like forever floating, I was so relieved that we didn't flip! The guide had given us all of the emergency procedures, how we would have to stay limp because we would be tossed around a lot if we let go. They also said that if it flipped, we would most likely end up under the raft. I don't know why, but all of this just... scared me a bit. But we made it out alive. And only mildly soaked. When it came time to go ashore, they told us that we would have to move quickly, or we would go down the Grade 6 rapids right after the point that we would get out. And they say that if you raft a Grade 6 and survive, it automatically becomes a Grade 5. *shudder* Luckily, we made it without any hiccups. It was a totally amazing day, full of awesome water activites and EXCITEMENT!! Hahahahaha. And you just read a totally long and probably boring and overdramatized account of it!! YAY!
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