We woke up at 5.30 as usual but the rain was so loud on the tent that we decided we'd aim for a later start. We dozed in and out of sleep until about 8 when we decided the rain probably wasn't going to give.
We got up to make breakfast under the campers shelter- everyone else had already left so we could spread our stuff out without getting too wet, and then packed the barrels and loaded the canoes.
Fully waterproofed up, we made it almost two hours reasonably dry besides for the last rapid before lunch that filled the boats with water and soaked through to my socks.
I was glad to stop for lunch because my arms were aching slightly from the day before and I think both Luke and I had had enough of canoeing! While the river and the cliffs either side were beautiful, the water was very still and took a lot of paddling to move through.
HOWEVER, about half an hour or so after lunch, we'd passed a few caves, seen three of the New Zealand falcon (huuuge birds that we've been looking for - they're on all the 'rare birds' notice boards), and the water started to speed up again. We had been told about the '50/50' rapid just before the Papriki landing where we were getting off the boats so had been looking forward, apprehensively, to going down them all day.
Before we got on the boats, Luke's mum had text saying she was scared about Luke going on the water and I had assured her we were with Olli who had been canoeing before - this same Olli was the guy who just before the rapid shouted to us 'head right into the big waves!'
We watched Olli and Renee go through first- they jumped around a bit in the boat but they did it nonetheless so we followed behind... we were the other 50% who nose dived the first wave, capsized and then got stuck in the 'Eddie' (think that's how you spell it). We hadn't stopped to think that Olli was probably slightly better at going over 'big waves' than us and maybe we should have taken the easier route! We swam (Luke swam, I shivered and held onto the boat) the boat to the edge where we emptied it of water and rescued our last wraps from the water (still dry!!!)
While capsizing wasn't on my agenda for the day, it did make my day in the end! Just as we pulled the boats in at Papriki, the sun came out and dried us out as best it could before our bikes arrived. We went up to the cafe and had a quick ice cream before setting off for the final 12km on our second mode of transport for the day.
It took me a while to get used to the bike and figure out the gears again but a little help and patience from Luke got me there in the end.
We cycled a few short up hills which almost broke me but most of the route was downhill so I just about survived (will have to start practicing riding a bike when home!)
We arrived in a place called Jerusalem where there is an old church and a convent that has supposedly been turned into a Backpackers, but there was no one around so we camped on someone's lawn instead... oh to the kindness of New Zealander's!
Next door to her garden was a small corrugated metal shed with two big black pigs in that wouldn't stop grunting and banging against the metal all night. One kept jumping with his two front legs on the fence so he could see us- I'm still trying to work out a way of smuggling him home.
Sometimes people here ask for a 'koha' which is a bit like a donation for them doing you a favour which is a bit awkward when you literally have nothing besides a credit card and some left over wine from the night before... so we left the left over bottle of wine and hoped it would do.
All in all, we had a brilliant day with surprisingly good weather that I was very thankful for considering the day's events!
We had a huge tea and did handstands and cartwheels before bed - it's an easy life ey!
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