New Zealand trip 2008

Christchurch ( 1 ▪ 2 ▪ 3 ▪ 4 )

As you may have noticed, Christchurch has a very English feel, from the name, to this sight of punters on the river Avon.

We carried on to a park with some glorious bloomage.

Don't know what fertiliser they've been feeding this plant, though.

Not sure what this building is, but it looks good with the tram in the foreground.  The tram didn't go very far, just round in circles almost purely for the tourists.

When we got back to the centre of Christchurch is pleasing to discover the good news that everyone is saved.  Phew, eh.

Later that evening, Lynne eyed her strange Guinness-based cocktail with suspicion.

And I somehow let the camera leave my side.  The photographer did not do a great job of getting us at the centre of the picture, but there you go.

Saturday, and time for some rafting action, as we had booked white water rafting with Rangitata Rafts.  First up, a pit stop, and a chance to try one of the local cheesy minced beef pies.  Interesting flavour.

We finally arrived there and were swiftly kitted up.  I can't express in words how ridiculous we look here.  We are not naturals.

The low cloud cover gave it an other-worldy feel.

At this point, we handed in all our belongings, including this camera.  The following photos were taken by a guy in a kayak who coasted down the river ahead of us, apart from some standard photos which they used to bookend the CD they sold to us afterwards.  Here is the view of the river we were about to tackle.

They split us into teams of seven, and gave each of us a group leader, one of the Rangitata Rafts staff who had lots of experience of this.  Then they made us all line up and look as gormless as possible.

And then made us jump in the air for the camera.  Not everyone did it at the same time as you can see - so there was another photo with most of us having landed and the two on the right finally in the air.

Early on, the waters were calm, and there was ample time to post for the camera.  I even let loose a cocky wave.  It wasn't as cocky as the guy who was nearly falling out of the raft, however.

There were four boats in all, and we all trailed the kayak with foreboding.  Our guide would instruct is to row on the left or on the right, and also to lower ourselves into the boat (the brace position, effectively).  Once ready to row again, he would shout "back on the job, back on the job!".

Ok, the easy stuff was over.  Time to brace yourself for some serious rapids.

Watch out for that rock!

Are we allowed to park here?

Right, guys (and girls), let's just reverse the hell outta here.  To me.

Phew, stage one complete - time for a breather.

Oh what, there's more?  Brace yourselves team, we're going in.  We all look so happy.  Well, happy and/or a bit mental.

Geronimo!  In glorious high resolution!  It's funny how Lynne and I keep doing the same facial expression.  Lynne opens her mouth like the world is ending, and I scrunch up face, trying to ensure, I think, that I don't lose a contact lens.

Oh my good lord.  We are actually still afloat here, somehow.

Now it's over, we're all smiles.

After that bit of action, we all got out of the rafts to take a long look at the next set of rapids, the most, er, rapid yet.  Level 4 or 5 or something.

Right then, if attack his straight on, we should be fine.

No, no, straight on please.  This does not look good.

Hmm, it's ok, it looks like we've survived this bit.  Wait a minute - what's that drop?

Splashdown!  Just a bit of water, though - let's sail on.

Look, we've even managed to get ourselves fully upright again.  It's easy this lark.  Would be nice if we could be straighter, though.

'Cos it stops this happening.  Sound the alarm!

Right, this is either not very promising at all, or just plain showing off.

So this isn't part of the plan?  What do we do now then, skipper?

Gurgle.

There then followed an actually slightly terrifying chain of events.  Firstly, as I was on the nearside and Lynne was on the far side (which was first in the water) I landed on Lynne whilst she was in the water as the boat flipped over and on top of us.  Secondly, it was bloomin' cold in there, and a bit of a shock to the system.  It wasn't clear which way was up for a few seconds and the danger was that mild panic would set in.  After we got ourselves upright and head out of the water, I noticed pain in my knees, and realised that we were still flying down the rapids and there lots of rocks underneath the surface.  Finally, our boat leader got on top of our upside down raft and flipped it back over.

And we exhaustedly hauled ourselves aboard.  Or got hauled aboard (I think I nearly gave a hernia to the guy who pulled me in).  Lynne had been picked up by a different boat as she had become separated from the main party as we hurtled down the rapids.  Crazy stuff.

Click here for some more rafting action.