river valley white water rafting; mokai grandcanyon

13/3/10
depart as early as 615am heading to Taihape which took us almost 2 hours by car. There were 9 of us: Husna, Beatrice, Nurul, Lucky, Fatima, Amri, Bro Taufik, Aysha and I. An odd number ;) Witnessed Allah's creation, subhanAllah, so panoramic! It was a chilly and foggy day but alhamdulillah we reached there on time :).. Once settled ourselves in the lounge, we listened to the instruction given by Gordy; basically on what and how to wear the gear they provided- thermal, wetsuit (~ scuba diving suit), shoes and helmet. after changing, boarded the bus (neville-the bus driver was so friendly, warm, and nice) got us to the site; Rangitikei river. Before we got ourselves wet, we were divided into groups and we were taught on how to hold the row, right way to sit etc.. and my group (according to Gordy) actually was the weakest group since no one has ever done it before n have no idea of what rafting really was n all girls?! For other groups, each has at least 1 guy on the boat and some of them had done this before ocassionally.. Thank God, Gordy; our guide treated us well, he's so patient and taught us till we got the flow..Had so much fun! with the forwards, backwards, drop, hold, left, right, harder movements, we managed to finished the rafting without a flip or flown out from the boat or knocked our head to the rocks..it started with a great 1-2 then 3-4 and lastly grade 5!. Backward fall at the dog's paw area if i'm not mistaken, was awesome! breath taking scenery with crystal clear water, the smooth cutting sand stone and lime stone of wall of canyon, small hiding caves and wonderful falls were all the prizes we earned from the activity! I couldn't believe myself when Gordy told us to hop out from the boat and that's it! we were done! I was so blurred and wanted for some more adventure!!like a littlt kid asking for more stories.. haha..btw, the price for grade 5 white water rafting is 165 dollar + 75 dollar for photos.
didn't do anything at mokai. i wish i could but i can't. not because I'm scared but I have other restrictions..huhuhu..watched my friend doing the bungy jumping and flying fox..they had so much fun screaming and laughing while doing it..maybe they just couldn't believe themselves, they eventually made it! the swing was scary though..it seemed like they cut the string while you were hanging beyond the platform and  suddenly fall from a high place vertically then horizontally and swinging back and forth along the shallow river.
in a nutshell, the rafting was worth it although many would say it is rather expensive compared to other places. but for me, the rapids were great and varied and it was much longer distance  than any other place.