My name is André Aalfs and I’m an intern at Kaitiaki Adventures. I love being here in New Zealand and interning at Kaitiaki. I hope you enjoy the blog!

Rafting in New Zealand

Rafting is the one of the things you must do during your stay in New Zealand, and if you want to do extreme white water rafting, Rotorua is the perfect place. I went rafting with Kaitiaki Adventures, so this blog is about my experience with them rafting the mighty local river, the Kaituna. It was amazing!

Preparation

First of all you have to make an arrangement for a rafting trip, you can do the rafting in the early morning, at lunch time or in the afternoon. You can choose to drive there yourself or use the pick-up, with the pick-up they will take you from your hostel to them. When you’re there they will provide you with everything that you need. Make sure you bring swimwear and a towel. Put the swimwear on and leave everything behind in a locked box. Then the guides will give you the equipment: a wetsuit, some booties, a life jacket and a helmet. Take your seat in the bus and they will drive you towards the river, during the ride they make a lot of jokes so laugh away with the amazing crew. They will also give you all the information you need to know when you’re rafting, it’s really safe.

Rafting the 7 meter Tutea falls on the Kaituna River, Rotorua, New Zealand

Teamwork

Then the bus stops, the whole team carries the boat to the starting point then one of the guides will say a prayer in the Maori language (because they respect the Maori culture which is really cool). After that you’ll drop the boat in the water with the guide in it, most of the time you have to swim to the boat, what a funny guide. Luckily the water is warm during all seasons so that’s not a problem. Then the guide says where you have to sit during rafting and gives the instructions; now these are easy but important. Forward paddle and back paddle is I think pretty easy. Then there are two other things and they’re called “Hold on” and the other one I forgot haha, but those are the two important things during the ride. Make sure you do this properly and you’ll make it unharmed to the finish line. Then the adventure starts! May the odds be ever in your favour!

Safe & adrenaline-pumping

While the guide screams forwards paddle, the river suddenly starts to speed up. It’s time for the first of the three waterfalls. The first and second ones are the ‘small’ ones and you’ll survive them easily. After some rapids it’s time for the drop of seven meters, the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world ;). When you approach the waterfall you shouldn’t worry too much, because it’s really safe and adrenaline-pumping. Just stick to the plan and you’ll make it unharmed to the bottom of the waterfall. It’s like two seconds and then you hear people yelling and clapping, everybody’s happy because they’ve made it after that you’ll notice that the boat is full of water, it’s like a bath. After that take on some more rapids and you’re at the finish! Get the boats out of the water and make a group picture. After that you’ll hop in the bus back to your dry clothes.

This is Rotorua adventure at the max, and it’s probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done. While you’re in New Zealand rafting with the awesome crew from Kaitiaki is the bomb! Highly recommended.