The first morning in Queenstown, my friend Gavin and I went to book the rafting at Queenstown Rafting retail centre. We’re given 2 selections to pick, either do it in Shotover River or Kawarau River. The differences are mainly the grade of excitement and the duration. For Kawarau River rafting, it is 2-3 grade rafting and it’ll take 4 hours to complete. As for the Shotover, it is 3-5 grade rafting and it’ll spend about half day. Of course, we choose the rafting in Shotover River since I failed to experience it on my previous visit. We paid $165 each and booked the 1.15 pm route. Yes! This time we eventually got it!
We returned to the retail centre in the afternoon and ready to be picked up by a coach leaving from the downtown. Together with others, we boarded the coach and on an awesome trip traverse the rocky Skippers Canyon. But before we came to the river, we’re sent to a hub to equip ourselves with wetsuit, booties, helmet, both spray and life jackets.
Now we’re at the riverside. All of us were arranged into 4 boats and there's a guide on each boat. After a full safety briefing and instruction were given, we all together put in the boats to the river and our rafting journey started.
Woo…hoo...holding the paddles, we’re excited to raft the river according to the command given by the guide. The water was cold but we had fun. We seemed relaxed and enjoyed the natural surroundings traverse the Red Rocks and Rock Garden section. Conversely, we’re shocked when reached the nerve-wracking rapids of rafting, expressly passed through the Oxenbridge Tunnel! Wow! Extremely excited. Lastly we truly had an adventurous day!
