Today we got up at stupid o'clock to go white water rafting in River Valley. We got on the river around 9AM and went over the basic paddling commands and then hit the water. After about 45 minutes we hit the heavy class five rapids. Our rafting team consisting of myself, Lisa, Mike, Alec, Brin and our guide Sam royally screwed up on the first set of class fives and found ourselves stuck on a rock in extremely aggressive water. One member of the team already succeeded in falling out of the raft and got quickly swept downstream where she was picked up by the rafts ahead of us using a safety line. Those of us remaining shifted to the right side of the boat with our guide as he worked to unstuck us. Lucky for me I got charged with the task of getting out of the boat onto a rock and pulling on a line to help us off whilst the guide pulled else where to dislodge us. Now as I happily followed the guides orders to get out of the the boat and hang on to this rope I figured this was going to be the beginning of the end as far as me staying out of the rapids was concerned. Getting out of the raft and standing on a little rock amidst the rapids holding onto a rope attached to the raft seemed like it could only end in disaster for me. Sadly I was correct in this prediction. We got the raft dislodged and I was told to hop back into the raft which I did. We began to move and then went down the water fall at which point myself, Mike and Brin were immediately ejected from the raft and into the water. I have no idea what happened to my paddle nor did I really care. I just remember plunging into the water managing grab a bit of air on the way down and then being fully submerged in very aggressive water. I did my best to swim upwards despite being bogged down by my jacket as it filled with water. When I finally reached the surface where I had been hoping to get some much needed oxygen I realized I was underneath the boat. I scrambled to get out from underneath and eventually managed to get briefly get myself above the surface to fill my burning lungs with less than half a breath before get smashed back under the boat. I once more found myself struggling to hold my breath and swim back to the surface. After more fighting to get air I broke the surface again in slightly calmer water and managed to keep head above this time and swam as hard and fast as I could towards our raft where everything was being pieced back together. Alec hauled me back into the boat and I took a few good deep breaths to put me back in the game. We drifted for a bit and collected our paddles that had been picked up by the other boats.
When I got chucked out of the boat I was holding on the rope on the side of it and the force was so strong I thought for sure I had dislocated my shoulder as I could feel my arm and shoulder separating and was met with a really strong pain in my shoulder when I hit the water but that was the last thing on my mind at the time. Further in along in the trip I managed to slam my other should hard into a rock off a waterfall to balance the pain. I also did a number on my left hip joint from bracing in the raft.
Following this ordeal the rest of the river went well and I remained (as well as the others) in the boat at all times. A little past this we hopped out of rafts to did a rock jump into the river from about 8 metres. The rafting trip ended right in front of the lodge and we got out and had warm showers. I ate a muffin and we recanted about the day. Rafting has definately been the most exciting activity I have done in NZ.
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