Fun times on the Whanganui

Over the past four days, the group and I have been on an adventure canoeing down the Whanganui river. This was the part of the trip I was most excited for and it was worth the build-up.

The journey was very challenging, as we had to canoe with all of our gear and cook dinner for everyone with the limited supplies we had. Every morning, we would wake up, eat breakfast, and begin taking down the tents and packing everything up. We would then spend the better part of the day paddling down the beautiful river playing games and attempting to stay dry. It was quite exhausting and by the time we got to camp each day, I was just about ready for bed but still had lots to do!

As the trip went on I became more and more excited for the last day because we were due to go down some of the stronger grade 2 rapids, which I knew would be challenging to go through by canoe. As the last day arrived, I had this feeling that my canoe was going to be one to go in and said that to my partner for the day. We got down the first rapid fine, but as inexperienced as we were steering the canoe while trying to keep the canoe right side up proved to be difficult. I saw the second rapid approaching and noticed we were parallel to it and said that we were going to flip. As soon as we hit the rapid, the boat tipped to the right and we tried shifting our weight but it was no use. We went right in. It was hilarious. We drained the three flipped canoes with lots of difficulty and while Andy laughed and snapped photos from his kayak.

I was happy that all of this happened because it added to the experience and made the trip more eventful. I was one of the few to swim in the river, even if it was unwillingly! Soon after the rapids, we approached the end of our expedition. We all got into our warm clothes and started to get ready to head to Wellington. Even though the canoeing expedition was a lot of fun and a great experience, it was nice to have a break for a couple of days in such a wonderful city.