We travelled from Wellington to River Valley having done absolutely nothing in Wellington. The bus dropped us off at a bus stop and we got picked up by an old man in a mini van and taken to River Valley lodge, a picturesque wooden lodge built alongside a river with a huge dining room and $14 full on roast lunch for supper....with cauliflower cheese!!YUM! We couldn't go riding that afternoon as it was raining so instead we signed up to go the next morning and i retreated to bed and finished 'The Time Traveller's Wife' at 11.00pm in floods of hysterics with a little light on while everyone slept...oh dear!The next morning I got up early with Tans and Hans to go riding. We drove to the stables and put on riding boots and hats etc...We were then gradually introduced to the horses we were to be riding. Tans had a very funny, scruffy and slightly nerdy horse called Pedro. She spent the whole time up until she got on psyching herself up and practicing holding the reins. When she did eventually get on the horse started moving and Tans asks 'what do i do' i replied 'hold onto the reins, perhaps! Hannah then got onto a dark brown, tall horse called Gypsy who was quite frisky and bossy. Hans and i swapped horses and it turned out that Gypsy was PILGRIM!! (from the horse whisperer!!!) He was so bossy and wouldn't let any of the others overtake him. If they did he'd kick them. The girl behind me never really latched onto that one!We rode through such beautiful landscape with hills, farmland and tree covered mountains in the distance...LORD OF THE RINGS SCENERY....i seriously became Legolas for an hour. It was thrilling!We got to a field and the guide said we could canter/gallop around by ourselves so off i went charging up the hill with another girl and of course Gypsy didn't like anyone being in front so i literally went charging...it turned into a race!At the top i split away from her and cantered at the top of the field for a while by myself which was so much fun up until i started heading down. It became a race to get back to the stables and once again i went charging!At the bottom The guide said we'd go up one more time but my horse was having none of it! He didn't want to leave the gate. I was pulling him so hard but in the end i we had some alone time together by the gate while everyone else went up! I cannot believed i missed what happened next! Tans started cantering for the first time and was riding aongside teh guide until they split up. Her feet came out the stirrups. The horse cantered faster and she jumped off her horse!She was very proud of herself for cantering and falljumping off! Between every gate after that my horse would go charging towards the next gate.I think he wanted to get back asap! I later found out that there is a horse hierachy and mine was at the top!

After our ride we got back on the kiwi bus and drove on to Taupo!

p.s it wasn't quite as idyllic as the photo!

Lots of love x x x x