Day 3: Day of Adventure

 By far, this was the most exhausting day of the trip. Hang on tight everybody.

We began with breakfast at the hostel followed by a short bus ride to a white water rafting hut near the Kaituna River.  After fitting us with helmets, life jackets, and water shoes we were loaded back onto the buses where our kiwi instructors gave us  some safety tips. Swinging around bends on windy roads in New Zealand while still getting used to driving on the opposite side of the road made it rather difficult to convert meters to feet when she told us we were going to travel down a 7 meter drop (I found out later was about 23 feet). But I WAS able to hear that this was a Class 5 rapid river, which I know is pretty damn rough. My favorite part was when they said this drop was the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere. Whelp, good thing I didn't tell my family about this until afterwards... (I'm fine Grandma, no worries)

That's me in front, laughing like an idiot

Before entering the rafts, we asked the River in the Maori language for safe passage. (or our instructors did and we listened respectfully) While we were traveling on the river, our guide told us a story about how the Maori warriors used the ferns in "the bush" (or woods) to lead them back to their villages after night time raids. One side of the fern is green, the other side is silver. The silver would shine in the moonlight, so Maori warriors would mark their way so their friends would be able to follow. Our guide pulled a leaf off of a fern and gave it to me. He said I had to fling it over my shoulder, and if it landed on silver we would make it over the falls without flipping over. If it landed on green... DUN DUN DUN...  we would flip.

Annnnddd...... it landed on green. "It's only 80% correct... usually," he tells me. Awesome. Just awesome. But we didn't flip! I did drop my paddle though, which I was promptly thrown out of the boat for and ordered to go get it. Whoopsies...

On another part of the river, our guide made us jump in the water and go down the rapids on our backs. I definitely got a nose and mouthful of water, but it was still really cool.

After White Water Rafting, we snagged some fish and chips and then met up with the rest of our Global Links Family to go "Ogo-ing". For those of you who don't know what that is, it is the same as "Zorbing". Essentially, you climb in a big rubber ball which is suspended by springs inside another big rubber ball. They pour water inside and you roll and splash down the side of a mountain. And holll---yyyyyy crap is it fun!

After Ogo, a few friends and I hit a South American Restaurant before we headed to Polynesian Spas. Expecting it to be relaxing after our long day of fun, I was very disappointed. I have never seen so many people crowded in once place in my life. And if I thought the geo-thermal pools outside our hostel was smelly, I obviously had never been to a natural spring spa before. Yick. If I could do it all again, I definitely would not have gone. Oh well, you win some and you lose some. But I will say this: the sunset was gorgeous while sitting in a hot pool. 

We rinsed off the stink and headed out to the Rotorua Bars. We went to"Pig and Whistle" which had live music. Oddly enough, they played all American Classic Rock songs... which of course I knew every word to (thanks mom and dad). Had a blast there with our $1 drink coupons, then headed home. Next day was CAVING!