Well Well Well! River Valley the long awaited White Water rafting!

After leaving Wellington and catching the bus and shuttle to arrive at river valley, i met a handful of people who were like me travelling northwards through the north island (this is not very common). They also were going to River Valley too. Now River Valley is not the name of a place itself but it is a big lodge next to a river in the middle of nowhere - and i really mean in the middle of nowhere. We stopped briefly in Taihape which is the nearest town (45 minutes away) and stocked up on cash and food supplies as there was no way of paying on card and no shops although they did cook gorgeous meals (but they were quite expensive for us backpackers).

I expected to spend a night here chill out do some rafting in the morning and then leave on my way to Taupo, however on arrival i found out that they only run rafting trips in the afternoons and i had missed the trip that day so i would have to stay until the next day. This then, as luck would have it, landed me on a day where no bus ran meaning i would need to spend atleast 3 nights there. I wanted to do the rafting so much and i had left myself some extra time so decided i would stay and i could have some proper chill out time as there was nothing else to do around here. WRONG DECISION!

The first afternoon we played some volleyball and footy, then chilld in the sauna before having by far the best roast dinner of the trip. This group of people left the next morning as the didn't have enough time to stay for the rafting. This was no problem though as there was a southward kiwi bus that stopped here every day so there was always plenty of people around - well in the evenings anyway.

I got up early the next morning ready for my trip only to find it had been raining all night and thewater level in the river was far too high to raft - it would have been lethal rapids. A bit disappointed but knowing i had to stay a few more days anyway i chilled out for the day taking a stroll through the forests. Luckily i had got a few rations so i could make lunches and snacks without spending more money.

Monday came around and the water was still to high to raft so i then had to make the decision - do i stay another day and hope i could raft (which was now looking more hopeful), or leave giving me more time elsewhere. i chose to risk it and stay another day even though this would mean rushing the next few stops more than normal. I spent another day chilling out - did a bit of dancing in the yoga studio and took another rather dangerous walk (i came back extremely muddy). This evening the bus load of people were really boring and none wanted to do any rafting. After being told that unless it rained more in the night the rafting was definitely on and it would be the best conditions i could hope for (really high, strong flowing water), i had really got my hopes up. But i was clearly not meant to raft as we needed atleast 5 people to run a trip - thus it was cancelled. I rang and organised a bus for the next morning and went on my way saying by to all the staff who i ahd been annoying for the last 3 days!