After our adventures in Napier and Stephen turning into an old, old man, we continued on our journey to Taupo. We bought a driving guide that described the road from Taupo to Napier, although we were doing this journey in the other direction which made for interesting reading. The guide was hilarious. It began "May we describe the SH5 (road between the two towns) as a rainbow? If so Taupo and Napier are pots of gold at either end." We laughed the whole way. As well as being unintentionally (?) funny, the guide was also quite useless, with the places of note being "Bob's Bed and Breakfast" and "Alan's Rescue Service". I think they may have paid to be in the guide.
We arrived in Taupo in time for our lunch. We had driven through Taupo the previous week, on the way to Turangi to do the Tongariro crossing. It is quite a pleasant little town (pot of gold, if you will) set around a large lake, the largest in NZ, which is actually the crater of an active volcano. Cool. We had come to Taupo for one thing, white water rafting.
The next day we were picked up by the rather attractive Simon, who was to be our guide. We drove to Turangi, where the rafting place is based and got kitted out. Once again, the costume was worth the money alone. On top of our swimming togs, we wore a fleece, wetsuit, spray jacket, waterproof boots and a life jacket. And a helmet. It was excellent. We drove to the Tongariro river, where we would be rafting and had a quick lesson in safety and paddle instructions. Simon demonstrated how to get someone out of the water, whilst we were still on dry land, with Stephen as the victim. It was very funny as the slight Simon hauled my larger boyfriend into the boat, completely scaring him. He thought Simon would never manage!
We set off for two hours on the river and a total of fifty rapids. Stephen was right at the front of the boat and got a face full of water at the second rapid! It was great fun and didn't feel to scary. The best, ie most dangerous, rapids were right at the end and finished off an excellent day. After we returned to base and got dried off we were rewarded with a sausage sizzle. We even bought the photos we were so impressed!
Stephen and I talked about the rafting later that day. I told him I was a bit worried about going, but didn't want him to think I was being negative about something he really wanted to do. He said he hadn't been that bothered about doing it, but thought I was keen. I said that I was keen, so he wouldn't think I was scared! Goodness knows why we ended up rafting, I'll discover in a month or so that Stephen never wanted to come away travelling, he was only doing it because he thought I wanted to. For people who have known each other for over ten years, we clearly can't communicate properly!