Monday, April 2, 2012

My rafting experience

DAY 3

WHITEWATER RAFTING  

“Yay!” it’s finally the day that we are going rafting, I wonder what instructor the CHINCHILLAS will get. We get told to go to the bus at the back of the restaurant. As we all pile onto the bus I see Mike walking up the stairs in front of me ” Hello Mike do you remember me, I came here with my parents in the holidays?” “Oh yes except I think you were just a tiny bit smaller, so is this your wonderful class here with us today.” “ Yes it is.” “So should I say hello.” “ Yeah I think they are very excited to meet you, I have told them all about you when I came here in the holidays.” “Ok that sounds great let's get started then, hey everybody, are you ready to go up and get all of your gear on?” “YES”, we all yell. “Ok lets get moving.”

When we arrive up top we all enter a shed type thing that they call ‘the rafting shed’, not that they ride a raft around in the ‘rafting shed’ it’s just it has all of the gear and changing rooms in it, anyway Mike tells us what is going to happen. “First I think we should get our wetsuits on with your thermal underneath”. “Done,” “ok now can you line up and let me get you a helmet, life jacket and some aqua shoes to protect your feet".“Ok now lets go over some safety rules before we head off on our amazing adventure.”

Mike started to tell us the safety rules and who the instructors are, Dion will have the Strikers, Liam will take the Mufflepuffles, Bones will have the Polar Bears and I will have the Chinchillas.” Then we all pile back into the bus and drive down to the river side and get ready for our 4 hours of rafting down the Mohaka river. We got our raft down to the river.“ Ok Chinchillas we need to push our raft safely into the river, got it guys.”

“Yes sir Chinchilla, we do.” ‘Crash’ as our our raft hits a rock as soon as we push our raft in , but in disbelief we survived, thank goodness. 1 Hour of our adventure had flicked by very fast and my group was starting to get hungry and I notice that we have the lunch bag.      
“Hey Mike when is it lunch, because I see that we have the bag with all of the food in it.” “ Well we are going to stop just around this corner,” “oh, hello lunch corner, how are you today” and there was no reply of course. Mmm lunch was delish I thought. Now it’s time to get a move on since we are running a bit behind in our course.

“Ok now lets push our raft into the river.” “ Forward paddle.” shouts Mike in his South African accent. “Stop” he shouts out in a very loud voice. “Ok now just up ahead is what we like to call ‘CARNAGE CORNER’, now we need to have everyone sitting at the back so we can do a wicked 360 when we hit the bank, everyone got it now,”  “YES,” we yell as we all move to the back of the raft. “Ok forward paddle everyone......, now hold on and DON’T let go.” As we hit the bank we all squeal in amazement “ How was that Chinchillas?”
“Great, can we watch the other groups go around ‘CARNAGE CORNER’?” I ask in amazement as the first group comes crashing through the rapid and slowly up the bank. “Sure you can and would you look at that here comes a group now as we speak.”

“Oh look here come the other 2 rafts and MR.G in the kayak with Tom ( Parent help ),” I wonder if MR.G’s watch is water proof, I might have to ask him, I thought in my mind as all of the other stuff about this wicked rafting trip with my class is flowing through my mind at the same time. “ Hey MR.G is your watch water proof?” “ I don’t actually know we will have to find out afterwards.”
“Ok” I said in a very adventures voice. “ Ok guys we have got about 30 minutes left in this rafting trip.” “Don’t you mean this adventure,” I say with a confused face as though I thought Mike was forgetting about how much fun and an adventure it had been. “Ok yes I mean that then, anyway as I was saying before Miss Felicity over here interrupted with her great idea, How have you all liked this AMAZING trip so far?” “We have loved it, ABSOLUTELY loved it” we all yelled out. ( We had planned this before we said it so it would be in time ) “ Well I think you guys deserve a treat, well actually it’s 4 treats. First it will be hopping out of the raft, holding onto the rope on the side and then letting go and floating down a rapid, do you think you’re all up to it?”
“TOTALLY!” “Well go for it of course, here comes a rapid, quick.” Sadly I was too slow and Mike ended up pushing me in. “Here comes the rapid, oh and a big rock, ahhhhhhhh my bum I hit it on the rock.”
“Ha-ha, you hit your bum” laughs Mike and MR.M” as I move away from the rock coming ahead.

“Ok now everyone back in the boat, remember how to pull each other in the raft safely, I did go over it just before.” “ We all safely get back into the raft.” “ Ok now our next treat it is walking around the side of the raft, who wants to be first to go around the raft.” “ Umm I will,” in a very nervous voice. “ Ok, off you go.” “ AHHH Eden can you please move, otherwise I might fall in, phew that was a close one, thank you for moving Eden if you didn’t I would be a drowned rat
[ Not literally though ].” “ Ok now lets get the rest of you a turn. Who next?...... Eden goes then Tyler, Daniel and last but not least Samuel. “ Next we will get to do a wheelie right across from where we finish, so are we ready or what Chinchillas,” “ yes we are.”

“Ok now once again can I please, please have everyone to the back beside me so we can go right up like a stick? Not for real though. Ok now that everyone is ready I need you all even you adults to lean forward when I tell you to, got it guys,” instructed Mike.
“ Yes.”
“Ok now lean forward and hold on.”.......
“Oh no MR.M fell out and look he is going back to shore, why is that Mike?”
“Well it is the end, so do you guys want to swim back to shore and then wait for me to paddle the raft back and then help me pull it out of the water so then when the bus comes the class can all work as a team and put all of the rafts back including the kayak that MR.G had.”
“Ok got it,” we all say cheerfully.

“Great off you go then, make sure that the current doesn’t take you away.”
“We will stay together just in case.”
“Ok.”
“Look the others are coming around the corner and the bus has arrived, Mike should we load our raft on since it will be easy for us?” I say in surprise since they all were in front of us before.
“Sure you can.” We all hop on the bus with all of the rafts including the kayak on the trailer. “Oh look at that poor little cow its head is stuck in the powerline, it obviously was trying to get more grass through the gap in it and its head got stuck.”........
When we get back to camp we get told to have a shower and then head down to the river side where there is a big patch of grass, where we will camp out for the night in a Bivouac that you will make with a partner,” says Mr. M in a very cheerful mode!

4 comments:

  1. Wow Floss
    Great Story!
    I can tell you worked on it for a long time.
    Your punctuation is really good too.

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  2. Wow that is amazing writing I love the part about carnage corner that was so funny. When my raft hit carnage corner Brody forgot to hold on it was so funny. Was it funny for you?

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    Replies
    1. Yes Amy it was very funny, when I first saw the video I thought it was someone else.

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  3. Cool story Felicity I love the picture you put on it was such a funny story.

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