Mad Dog Riverboarding

Today I somehow managed to peel myself out of bed at 7AM after a night of heavy drinking and getting back to the room at 4AM to go River boarding on the free pass I won for dressing up as a woman. I got the check-in place five minutes early after a frantic search for voucher. I made sure to consume as much water as possibly to try and rehydrate myself after the mistake that was the previous night. One of the Riverboarding guys laughed at me because he saw the "World Bar" wristband I was wearing and said I was in for a fun day.
We took a 40 minutes bus to the river where we got briefed on how everything was going to work and then got suited up into wet suits and also got our helmets, fins and life jackets. The three of us then headed down to the river and did some practice swims in the river. I managed to get sucked out into the main flow and one of the guys had to come get me so we could start again. Once we got going it was incredible. It's definitely the most physically demanding thing I have ever done. Swimming through heavy rapids and trying to keep yourself on the board so you dont get dragged under water was really challenging. I had convinced myself that I did not want to end up underwater so I was going to hang onto the board at all costs. In the end I managed to stay on the whole time. It was such a feeling of relief and accomplishment at the end when the river calmed and we got to just drift down the river while we waited to be picked up by the Jet Ski.

After we got picked up we got dragged around on a mat behind the jet ski for awhile (or as long we could hang on). Once we got back on land we were taken up to some rocks we could jump off of into the river. I jumped off a 7m (23ft) ledge into the river and then we swam back around to give the large slide into the river a shot. The slide is simply a long metal slide similar to what you would see at a playground except it is really long and steep and feeds into the river - you go down it on your board. We did this four or five times each doing it forwards, backwards, upside down and across the wake of the Jet Ski.

Later in the afternoon Jennie, Malin and I decided to take the gondola up some hill to take in the view. I was pretty beat for this whole experience and came in and out of consciousness at our picnic table but it was still enjoyable.

Unfortunately I got major cramps in my calves during the swimming from being so dehydrated from drinking the night before so my legs are still quite sore this evening. I finally had a chance to stop into the fabled Fergburger today I had been hearing about from everyone who had been to Queenstown before that I had met in my travels. I had the "Mr.Big Stuff" burger and it was delicious.