so we capsized....

hey guys! so adventure # 2 is over, and even though you can get bored of paddling real quickly after 4 hours...it was really fun. (we paddled 80 miles)

ok so....day 1...we get on the river (the company we used was Blazing Paddles...hahah get it??) I am with Katie the first day and we are still green paddlers and not used to the rapids. Did i forget to the mention that Margaret and I capsized during Adventure # 1...oh yes we did and the water was freezing...oh well.

So we set out a little nervous and we hit a rapid almost immediatley, but we make it through fine. We are paddling along talking to the other memeber sof the group trying to keep up with the group and trying to keep from falling out when the rapids came, but when the first big rapid came we ended up walking our boat down the side of the river which was scary because when we tried to get back in the current turned out boat around and i was facing the wrong direction and Katie had to save me...yikes!! But we made it through day 1 without another hitch. Once we got to the first campsite -- 6 hours later -- we were ready for the day to end, but we had to carry up all our barrels of food, clothing and tents up a hill to the campsite. It's fun sleeping in tents, until the bugs start to bite. Audra is COVERED in bug bites that have made her use statements like "I want to cut my legs off". It looks like she has a severe case of the chiken pox, but hopefully it will clear soon, but then again our next volunteer project had the flies that have been biting her all over the place. boo! I have been fortunate so far.

The next few days were good. I paddled with Scott next, who is a great person to be with because one paddle takes us far, and i felt confident i wasn't going to run into anything. Same deal with the campsite and the amount of hours we were on the water -- but this time it was 7 hours!! oy! On day 3 i paddled with Bennett.

On day four we had Pirate Day, which was lots of fun. We dressed up as pirates and spoke in pirate language and decked out our canoes with pirate flags. The other people on the wate rwith us loved our get ups. Margaret and I were glam pirates. it was lots of fun and i will get some pics up at some point, prob tomorrow. We saw the "Bridge to Nowhere" this day, which is what it sounds like. Its a random bridge that used to go to somewhere but now that somewhere no longer exists. oh well. it wasn't that great, but it was cool to see. Campsite # 3 was rough because the hill to get up to it was awful! i was out of breath once we got everything up to it. i was ready to pass out, but dinner was still to come and we had to set up the tent. That night i learned how to play gin-rummy(sp?) and learned how to tie some knots. (Scott is a Eagle Scout and a Black Belt..so cool).

Day 4 of paddling was uneventful. We ended up staying at a Marae, which is a place where the native Moari lived way back when and is now used as a palce where people can camp out. it is run by Moari and it is there to keep the traditions alive in travelers hearts. However, the group was more interested in the bar across the river, which we paddled over to...it was actually a nice lodge (the bridge to nowhere lodge), which had a tiny bar in it, but it was really nice and we wished we were staying in the nice toliets, shower, and bed place...sigh. oh well. we slept in our tents. word to the wise...don't paddle across a river at night!! its scary!

Day 5....last day. This was the eventful day...of course. i was exhauasted from all the paddling by now and was ready to get to dry land for good. however we stopped at a cave to check it out and ended up getting into a huge mud fight. I got scott in the face...oops, but it was fun. we were soooo dirty. once we washed off we had our traditional salami sandwiches with pb&j for dessert. And then about 15 minutes later when we got to HUGE rapid # 2....three of our boats capsized, one of which was MINE. Jordan and I watched Audra and Scott capsize before us, so we were nervous, but we had to go through. we thought we got through safetly, but we were WRONG. we were too confident and got stuck in the back current which tipped us over. sigh. However, this time it wasd so much fun because Maragret and Dominick capsized too and the water was super warm. Phew. cold water is no fun.

Once we ended the trip, with no more capsizing occurences, we drove to another Marae 40 minutes away (i forgot to mention that there is a little ceremony before you can stay on the Marae -- you have to be welcomed in, girls walk in first, then you listen to a song by the Moari, then you go up and shake hands with them while touching your nose and foreheads together (one thought, one breath) and then you sing a song for them -- it was cool) -- anyways the second Marae was really nice and had a bar. haha. We had a huge dance party in the bar, which was so much fun. I love dance parties!! ok not a lot of time so i am going to make the rest of this quick...

today...we left Koriniti (the marae) and made our way to Wellington. When we got here we checked into the hostel and then went to the One Love Concert, which is a lot of reggae music, lots of people drinking do doing other such things, people selling food, clothing and other trinkets. it wasn't as fun as i thought it was going to be because i was so exhasted from getting little sleep the night before. When we left I was happy because i was exhausted. We went out to Burger Fuel, which has the best burgers EVER and then i came here to write to all you guys.

Tomorrow we are going to a Moari museam to learn more about their culture and then its the a free day...whop whop!! i am so exicted. i am ready to chill out. I'll prob write tomorrow because i need to put my pics up!! hope you enjoyed the read!! miss you all!


p.s.
-NZ does not have graham crackers
-the don't know what smores are
-they have one and two dollar coins and the smallest coin they have is 10 cents

more of these interesting facts to come later!!