White Water and Green Jade

We pulled into a small parking lot where we were supposed to meet the helicopters. We were only 15 minutes late, so we figured that we couldn’t have missed the helicopters. Since the trip was being put on basically because we requested it, they would have waited at least awhile for us.

Everyone changed into swimsuits and we chatted with some hunters who were waiting for a helicopter as well. They were going to be flown up into the bush on the mountain in order to facilitate hunting. After forty-five minutes had gone by (and the hunters had been picked up), we truly started panicking. Had we missed them? How could we know? (None of our cell phones had worked this whole time because Australia and New Zealand don’t work together with the same networks.)

The helicopter came back and we asked the pilot if he knew anything—where our guides were, what we should be wearing, etc. He didn’t have any clue, so we all sighed and used the extra time to clean up the vans a bit. Becky made everyone sandwiches for lunch (we had to pack our own) and Jamie tried to bestow “Trip Mom” onto her, but she didn’t want it. I was glad, because I not-so-secretly enjoyed having the title.

Finally a huge van with “ecorafting.com.nz” peeled down the road. A man who, not surprisingly, looked quite hippie-esque, jumped out of the driver’s seat and two other hippies followed. “Sorry we’re late guys, one of our guides got drunk and high on ecstasy last night, so I had to find a replacement at the last minute,” the driver said. He went around, introducing himself (don’t ask me to remember his name, I’m horrible with names). We all gave each other looks. This was going to be interesting…We were given wet suits to wear. As we were changing, another car pulled up and four people got out. They were going to be participating in our trip as well.

We passed around the contract, signing to say that if anything happened we wouldn’t sue, as two helicopters brought our gear down the river. Next, it came back to pick up the fifteen of us (twelve participants plus three guides) in groups of 4. I got to sit in the front middle, meaning that I got to watch all of the gears. We all had to wear headphones in case the pilot needed to tell us something—otherwise, we wouldn’t hear him over the noise!

The helicopter set us down on a river bed where our guides were pumping up the boats. I wandered over to attempt to help after one of the guides suggested that we be willing. As I stood, waiting for instructions, I chatted with one of the guides. When I told him that I was a women’s studies major, he asked, “What do you study? Bra-burning?”

When I replied, “Not quite,” he guessed again. “Feminism?”

“Basically.”

He grinned and handed me the pump. “Women can do anything!”

I sighed, laughed, and set to work. I did a horribly slow job since I’d never pumped up a raft before, but whatever. After the boats were full (I was relieved of my duty quite quickly), we had a safety briefing, then into the boats we went!

White water rafting was definitely one of my favorite activities of the week. It involved paddling down crazy rapids and banging into rocks, getting soaked and having a great time. One of the guides, in a safety canoe, kept watch over us and took pictures (we could buy them on CD for $15 each—the company knew that if they charged us $45 for one CD, we’d just buy one and everyone would copy it, so we could only get the CDs if we ALL went in on it). We stopped for lunch and a pee break. I wandered off and found a great rock to urinate behind, walked around it, and realized that everyone else had decided that as well, based on the huge wet spot behind the rock. After we ate, we all jumped off of a small ledge into a pool with a waterfall. Some of the adventurous guys from my group were able to swim underneath the waterfall to the rocks behind. I assumed that’s what we were supposed to do, so I attempted to and instead got sucked underneath and pushed out towards the opening of the pool where everyone else was getting out.

When you fall into water that cold, there’s a thing called the “gasp reflex.” Your throat contracts immediately and you start gasping for air. However, your lungs are filled with air already, so you’re trying to suck in air with no room for it to go in. Our guides had warned us that to combat this, you need to breathe out before taking a breath in. When I jumped in, I immediately started gasping as soon as my head popped out of the water. After a gasp or two, I remembered that I had air already and forced myself to breathe out. I was able to breathe and was so proud of myself for staying calm! One member of the group (I’m leaving him or her nameless), however, was not so lucky and freaked out because he or she could not breathe. We all felt bad for him or her.

Near the end of the river, our guide told us to stop in Hokitika for the night. It’s known for selling green jade, the most valuable stone according to the Maori (New Zealand natives). There’s a Maori legend stating that you cannot keep green jade that you have found or bought for yourself. It’s so valuable that you must give it to someone you care about. We decided that it was a good idea, so we drove up and got some Indian food for dinner. After dinner, we tried to find a bar and could only find one thing open at 8 PM, and it closed at 11 (maybe even 10, and the owner just let us stick around). We played pool and I beat Becky and Jamie! After we were kicked out, we decided to sleep behind a used bookstore for the night.

The next morning we went to breakfast at a French café and went souvenir shopping, then drove back to Christchurch. The road was so deserted that at one point we stopped and took pictures while standing in the middle of the road. We dropped off everyone at the hotel (we squeezed the eight of us into a four-person room), and a bunch of the guys went to return the camper vans. Becky and I took showers and went shopping for a few hours. They got back, we all went to dinner, then crashed for a few hours. Our plane was at 6 AM so we woke up at 3 AM, took the shuttle to the airport, and flew home!