Rafting and Desserts

19 November 2013 As the rafting was not until the afternoon, Dave and I decided to cross the river on a Flying Fox, a sort of platform that you sit on and pull yourself across with ropes. Once across it was possible to zigzag up to the top of the gorge for quite a way. We had been warned to only go as far as the sign as there was hunting lands on the other side. Apparently deer are a big problem so hunting is encouraged. In addition Possum and stoats are a big problem although these are usually trapped or poisoned rather than hunted. However none of these were in eveidence and we had a nice little scramble up. The Rangitikei River is another very good rafting river and completely different to the the Rangitita. It is far warmer for one thing with much less volume of water. It lies in the bottom of a deep gorge and is far tighter and more technical too, meaning that a lot of skill and knowledge is needed to navigate it. Thankfully the guides were up to the challenge. Our guide Tom had lived in the area all his life and was a source of lots of information about the land as well as negotiating the river with ease.

The Maori used the gorge as a crossing place and Tom showed us the narrowest part of the gorge where they would jump across. The Maori are still a big influence in NZ and a lot of the place names are from their language. The river trip took about three hours but not all of it involved paddling. There were opportunities to drift and admire the weird geology of the gorge. In geological terms it is very young limestone, mudstone and something that Tom called deorilite (my interpretation of what he said.) There were also a lot of trees, mostly two sorts of NZ beech. Most of the paddlers took the opportunity to swim at one stage or another though I cannot see the point of getting into water unnecessarily. We also managed to surf on a couple of the waves at the bottom of rapids, our team doing considerably better than the other boat maybe because we were all experienced paddlers or perhaps because Tom really knew what he was doing.

All in all, a brilliant Rafting Trip. Now back on the road this time to Taupo. We had intended to stop on the side of the road and Free Camp but ended up heading into Taupo to find something to eat and discovering that the council had created a Free Camp in the middle of the town right on the foreshore. We went into a restaurant called the Waterfront and had a beautiful three course meal with the added bonus that the chef decided that we should have portions of all the four desserts available. Pumpkin and Ginger Cheesecake,with Liquorice and Blueberry Icecream ,Persian Lovecake, with Saffron sauce, Chocolate Marquis with Coffee Icecream and a Custard Tart with cream and Blueberries. I am hard pressed to say which was my favourite. We then dashed back through the warm rain to sleep under a Eucalyptus tree in the middle of a very nice quiet town.