natasha (my kiwi friend from all the other kayaking events) had said i could share her tent, and she was driving so we requested i be in her car. so it was us and another girl, michelle, who's from michigan and lives in empire (next door to ih). so natasha got here around 6:30 and we were on the road by 7. she has lots of good cds including the juno soundtrack and lots of me first and the gimme gimmes so we listened to that the whole way there. it was like a 3.5 hour drive to rotorua, and then another good hour south and east to murapura. our campground was right next to lake aniwhenua (pronounced something like on-i-fen-ua), which is a lake created by a dam in the rangitaiki river.
we got there around midnight so it was obviously dark. we used natasha's headlights to put up her tent (it was her uncles fancy alpine one so it was really nice, and very easy to set up). michelle had one that she had gotten off trademe (nz's version of ebay) and had some difficulties but got it up finally. kendall had gotten there before us, she rode with an instructor named ben (called speedy because he is never ready on time i guess) and travis, who is from california and lives in empire, and looks like the guy from the notebook so i always want to call him noah. courtney and adrienne (who both also live in ih, adrienne is from california and went to fuljames, and courtney is from arizona and has never done any kayaking before) were sharing tents with the others, but they were riding with a lot of the aucc people who were making a big caravan, so they were still in auckland at 8pm, so they got there later than the rest of us. we went to bed pretty soon after we arrived. there was a really nice (nice in terms of campgrounds) bathroom with running water and toilet paper which was cool since it was free. however there were no lights, and i'm dumb and forgot my flashlight again so we had to take turns going. when discussing my not bringing my flashlight again i said "i'm needy and retarded" and everyone thought it was really funny and kept repeating that all weekend. they also thought it was hilarious when i described wearing socks with flip flops as "toe wedgies"
the next morning we woke up and i had one of my pbj's that i had brought from ih (i made 5 between thursday and friday, and wrapped them in saran wrap and brought them, along with 3 things of ramen (which they call noodles, not ramen here) and some granola bars). so anyways i had a sandwich for breakfast and after a bit they called everyone over and said we were going to do 2 runs of the grade 2 river because there were so many beginners. they also took one raft to the grade 3/4 to see how long it took, since the river was super low, which changes conditions pretty drastically.
so i got in the first kayak group, as did everyone else (kendall, natasha, courtney, adrienne, travis, michelle, lee, etc) and everyone drove over the dam and down the river to where the hydropower station is. after getting all our gear, we dragged our boats over to the edge of the platform area we were on, and they hooked a rope on and lowered each boat down this huge cement wall, while we walked/climbed down the slightly less steep cliff next to it. it was pretty cool.
from there there was another cement platform right over the water, and some rocks leading down the the water on the side. the people who had the good spray decks (made of wetsuit material) got to launch off the cement platform right into the water, which looked scary but really fun. most of us beginners had the crappy decks though which cannot withstand the force of the water when you do that, so we just took them down the rocks and got in in the water.
we all gathered around, and watched some of the pros going over the waterfall just upstream of us. i ended up in a group with 2 instructors, named jess and izzy, and just me and courtney as beginners, which was quite nice because they were always right there to save us, although their boats were the little short kind called "play boats" that a lot of the instructors have, and apparently they are a lot slower going down the river than our long classic kayaks, so they would have to paddle just to keep up with us when we were just floating along.
they said they had gone to otago uni (in dunedin on the south island) and were in basically the same club there, and they just moved to auckland and had no friends so they joined aucc. they were really nice to us (some of the guy instructors tend to yell, not meanly just loudly, but it makes it more stressful), and they gave us snacks halfway down and stuff. and there was this cave about halfway down and colm went by and told us to pick some foliage and take it in and leave it in the cave as an offering to the river gods. at first i thought he was just messing with us bc our instructors were new, but everyone else was doing it so we did too. courtney got a huge stalk of plant so i just took some of hers and we successfully deposited it.
however a few rapids later i was aiming away from the rocks and got sideways and flipped over, and freaked out a little and ended up swimming. jess said she thought i stayed under waiting for t rescue for awhile but i really didn't think about that for very long. anyway, she towed me on the back of her boat downriver a little way to some flat-ish rocks and james got my boat and paddle and we dumped out the water and got me settled again without too much trauma.
a bit later i was following jess and we ended up getting very close to some trees on the side of the bank, to the point where i had to duck to not get them in the face, which sort of rolled me over in slow motion. however i knew jess was right in front of me so i hung on for ages waiting for her to come roll me, and i finally felt her trying to barrel roll me back as i was reaching to pull off my deck to swim, so that encouraged me to hang on just a big longer, and eventually she and izzy righted me together. then however, we discovered that my paddle was suck in the tree, and izzy had to go back upstream to get it, and actually had to get out of her boat. i felt really bad, but i guess they were happy i didn't swim.
after that there was no more upside-down time, and we met everyone else around the same time at the get-out which was nice because it was where the river turns so we just had to keep going straight ahead, rather than veering off at the right time like at fuljames. after we got out we had to wait for the person whose car natasha's keys were in to get off the river. then we went back to the campsite, where we saw emily who had arrived earlier and others waiting to go on the second run. we got all warm and dry and i was going to take a nap but everyone was playing this game lee was raving about called mafia, so i was eventually convinced to join them.
in the game everyone sits in the circle, and lee was the 'announcer' so he went and gave everyone a card, and if it was a black queen or jack you were a member of the mafia, and a red jack was the detective, and all the other red cards (we weren't playing with the whole deck, there were probably 15 of us) were just ordinary people. then everyone talks about who they think the mafia is, and comes to a consensus on who to kill. then everyone closes their eyes except the mafia, who point and agree who to kill, and then they close their eyes and the detective opens theirs, and gets to guess one person who they think is mafia, and the announcer nods or shakes his head, and then everyone 'wakes up' and finds out who died. the goal of the game is to not die (and for the citizens to kill off the mafia, and vice versa). it was the most fun when i was a mafia member, and campbell was like horrified about my lying and "cold-blooded-killing" in the game. i did not win though :(
the rafters got back quite late, so there was no second run of that for the day, and the second group of kayakers were just getting off the river when the sun went down so i bet that was pretty chilly. the weather report said it was supposed to rain all weekend, but it was kind of grey and chilly on saturday.
we used travis and natasha's little camp flame things to boil water for ramen (which courtney had never had before!) and had dinner. since everyone was going into the pub in "town" for evening activities, we made s'mores right after dinner. natasha was the only kiwi in our group so she was really excited, and they were pretty tasty.
natasha and i went for a stroll to visit everyone else since we were all kind of cliquey and only hanging out with our little group, but we ended up just kind of awkwardly standing in circles by everyone else. then keri announced that it was time to go to the pub, and most people piled into people's vans, but natasha said she didn't mind driving so we just went in her car. when we got there there were maybe 10 locals (we had been warned they can be quite 'dodgy') and then like 60 of us, so we definitely took over. most of our little group was pretty exhausted so we just kinda stood and sat around people watching and not being at all social. the song that everyone goes nuts for here whenever it comes on (i've heard it a lot of places), called why does love do this to me, came on and everyone went nuts, and natasha explained that it's kind of a 'kiwi anthem'.
we couldn't decide if we wanted to kayak again on sunday, or raft the hard grade 3/4 river, and i had the brilliant idea of asking campbell if he would take me in the duo kayak on the hard stuff, but he said that would be super dangerous on account of the low water level. so we decided to just figure that out in the morning. there was a chorus of people singing the 12 days of christmas only with alcohol for all the days, i'm not sure where that started from. and i looked for izzy and jess to buy them beers (it's the tradition to buy them for people who rescue you, or for instructors who get you all the way safely) but i could not find them anywhere. that night was daylight savings, and i guess at 3 am on sunday we went back to 2 am, and according to aucc tradition, nothing that happens between those hours counts. however we were falling asleep at the bar before midnight, so we decided to just go back and go to sleep.
sunday morning we woke up later, and packed the tents and everything and had breakfast. during breakfast (as well as all our previous meals) there were a bunch of wasps hanging around and most everyone was freaking out and i kept telling them to calm down and sitting still is better than flailing. so then we're standing around after breakfast and i look down, and oh hey there's a wasp stinging me. it was quite ironic. however after the initial stinging and swelling i forgot about it and by the afternoon it was basically gone (i wish i could say the same for all the bugbites on my wrists and ankles).
anyway, after a while there was a big group meeting and keri said there would be one grade 2 kayaking run, and there were 8 spots open on the rafts. so they first took the names of everyone who wanted to raft, and drew 8 out of a hat. i put my name in because i was still undecided, but didn't get in (michelle from our car was the only one i knew who did). then they took everyones names for kayaking, but it turned out there was enough gear for everyone who wanted to go, so that was good. adrienne was tired so she and some others just hung out at the campsite all day.
the rest of us drove back up to the hydropower place again, and this time i got one of the fancier looking boats. i also happened to color coordinate my paddle, my spray deck and my water shoes, completely unintentionally. ross was the only instructor to be found for quite awhile, and he said he would take someone in the duo. i considered, but before i had made up my mind molly, who is also in ies, said she wanted to. we also were all trying to get the few nice spray decks so we could get launched in, but i sadly did not. then ross lowered all the boats over the cliff, and eventually some more instructors showed up (a lot of them were kayaking the hard river though). when i went to get in the water i discovered that my spray deck didn't fit my boat after all, so then i had to drag my boat back up from the rocks and someone eventually found me an extra deck that fit.
once in the water i discovered that the fancier boats are a lot harder to steer, although you can lean on the 'rails' (sort of the corner of the side, it helps with turning) a lot more before flipping over. courtney, kendall, natasha and i ended up in a group with alana and guido as our instructors. they were really nice but as soon as we started paddling around i discovered just how sore/tired i was from saturday. they asked us if we could t rescue and we all said yes (although natasha can't, but she only swam once the day before, and she said she will learn at pool training). i volunteered to practice because honestly i was kind of hot in my polypro since the sun was out and it was a beautiful day. i am really much less scared about holding my breath underwater now.
the river was lots of fun again though, and my only flipping experience was leaving the cave (where we left more offerings). apparently the river gods really don't like me. anyway i shrieked as i went over and guido was right next to me when it happened, so i was fine waiting for a t rescue because i knew he was close. i even saved my paddle! so they were proud of me for that. that was the only tip of our whole group for the entire river, pretty impressive. it's really fun going over the rapids when you hit them straight on, it's just scary when you're sideways and feel like you're going to roll over. my steering was so bad in that boat though, every rapid i went through i would spin around and end up facing upstream by the end. i always stayed on top of the water tho, so that's the important part.
we were the first group to finish, so we played around by the get out and practiced t rescues again (natasha did not ha ha) and eventually some others arrived too and we got out. ross and molly played in the wave (that's where the pros play around and do tricks) and they had gone off the edge when getting in and molly had basically gone underwater bc she was in front, but that sounds like so much fun, you get to do the hard stuff because the person in the back knows what he's doing and can roll if need be. i kind of wish i had spoken up sooner, but campbell said he will take me in that some other trip, and it was probably good for me to practice my own paddling more. after we were all out we helped load the boats all on the trailer and just hung around for awhile.
as we were leaving everyone was waving at us and we couldn't figure out why, but then the road was so twisty it took awhile to find a safe place to turn around. when we finally came back to everyone they were surprised to see us, and mo, one of the instructors said he just needed a ride back to his car, so he crammed in with us and we went back to the campsite to pee since most of us were bursting, and then took him to his car. then we were off to meet up with everyone at the "secret spot" which is the coolest thing ever. there is a geothermally heated river meeting a regular cold river, so there's like a gradient hot pool, so you can sit in any temperature you want.
we got directions from 2 people and still missed the turn the first time, but when we finally found it we met the people who hadn't done anything all day there. there was one sign that said due to increased popularity they were going to build a boardwalk down to the pools, so i was glad we got to see it in its original form. there was a second sign that said not to get your head wet, on account of the risk of getting amoebal meningitis. natasha said that's a rule of thumb for all hot pools. i guess it makes sense that stuff that can live in you is growing in the body-temp water, but i was very grossed out. i had to explain to everyone that the vaccine we get is for bacterial meningitis and would not help with this. gradually all the other kayakers showed up, and we basically took over the whole area (there were a few other people there who were not with us who i felt a little bad for, as with at the campsite). there was talk of the raft getting suck and some concern that the rafters hadn't arrived yet, but then after awhile they showed up safely. everyone made a 'massage train' which was pretty cool, although people kept breaking it to adjust their temperature.
as it was getting dark (around 6) natasha said we should get going bc she didn't want to get back super late, so we left before the crowd, and decided to stop in rotorua for dinner. someone in the car mentioned burger fuel, which is also in auckland and i have heard lots about their amazing burgers. we didn't know where the one in rotorua was, but natasha had a sudden memory from a soccer trip there so we got there and when we went in we saw another car of kayakers was already there. it's kind of pricey, because the burgers are enormous, but i wasn't super hungry so i just got kumara (sweet potato) fries which were AMAZING, and they came with this garlic mayonaise stuff to dip in (i think it's called aioli?) as we were eating basically everyone else arrived from the secret spot, and one of the older guys, michael, apparently is a shareholder in the company, so everyone arriving after him got a discount. we decided it was ok though since we didn't have to wait in the huge line so we would get home sooner.
we drove the rest of the way with no stops, and i stayed awake to keep natasha company and we listened to juno and the gimme gimmes again, and the ramones and the lion king soundtrack and talked and were silly most of the way. we dropped another girl who got a ride with us at her house in south auckland, and then we got back to ih around 11, so that wasn't too late. i hung up my wet clothes and went to sleep immediately.
today (monday) i went to roll training again and a lot of people are getting it but i thus far am not. there were way less beginners than before which was nice, and squirrel was my instructor again. my goggles were nice for the whole watching the paddle blade part, and molly had a nose plug she borrowed from someone, so we were trading them back and forth during our turns, but the nose plug didn't stay on my nose so i gave up on that, and then she got taken away by another instructor so she had to deal with no goggles. i kept hitting the bottom of the pool with my paddle, which is bad because you're supposed to sweep across the surface. however squirrel showed me how i could use the bottom to push myself back up in an emergency, which was a bad idea because i kept doing that every time then instead of trying to go across the surface. she would them hold my paddle in the right spot, as i rolled, and gradually was helping less and less until she said she was only using one finger and it was really all me, but as soon as she stepped away i would go back to hitting the bottom. by the end i was completely exhausted, and now my right calf, side, arm, and shoulder all feel like i won't be able to move them in the morning. now i am going to sleep. good night!
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