#22 Rotorua

The last day trip I took on the north island was to Rotorua. Some friends were going paddling on the Kaituna River and Lawrance said he could get his hands on a double kayak and take me down the rapids. As much fun as it is being the shuttle bunny, as I am known, I had been wanting to go down the Kaituna since I first learned of the existence of the Topo Duo. I had been down the waterfall once before while rafting - the 7 meter one we flipped on.

Would you trust them to get you down that?
I was nervous about the boat flipping and being stuck under water, but we did some practice rolls up by the floodgates and I was surprised at how quickly Lawrance could roll us back over. We would be under for only a moment and he would flip us upright, almost as soon as we had gone over. We did that a few times and after that I was sweet to go.

Now I understand why these guys are so addicted to paddling waterfalls. It is really fun. And all I had to do was sit in the front and paddle when I was told to and Lawrance did all the work. The smaller falls had more of an impact because the boat we were in was pretty heavy and the water slams into the person sitting up front. We actually didn't even flip on the waterfall. So glad I got to do it.

After the river it was time for some serious action, so we went to the luge tracks.

Gentlemen, start your engines.

Of course it turned into a race and everyone was running each other off the road. I took some of the corners on two wheels and lost to Simon because he cheated and pulled on my brakes when I was passing him. Not that I didn't do the same.

We went way faster than this guy.

The lifts to get back up were painfully slow. We could have walked faster. And we couldn't take our helmets off.

View of Lake Rotorua from the lift.

View of the lake #2. Work it.

Aw.