We finish our trip in New Zealand's north island with a wild ride!

***NOTE*** this is the last posting for our Australia/New Zealand trip.  Start reading at the beginning of the posts by clicking on the link above in the listing of previous travels entitled:  Round Australia and New Zealand, 2019.

We have worked our way up NZ to the north island and at this port, Tauranga, we checked off a "bucket list" item!

In 1769, explorer James Cook sailed past Mount Maungani but it was a trader named James Farrow who became the first permanent settler when he arrived in 1829 looking to export flax.

 The harbor and Mount Maunganui viewed from the ship.

The port and town of Tauranga.  It is a popular beach resort town for vacationers.

 We are ready to head out for some white water rafting!

 Off we go...

We booked a ship's excursion this time.  We will raft the whitewater through beautiful forests lining the banks of the Kaituna River.

 We travel by bus for about an hour to the rafting headquarters.

We arrive at the warehouse housing all the rafting equipment.

Our group from the ship will split up into three rafts.

We are instructed on how to put on the rafting attire.  We will be covered from head to toe and also wear a life jacket and carry an oar.

We then leave our cameras behind and load into a van to take us to the rafting launch site on the river.  The rafting company provides a photographer to capture this wild adventure.

Here we are ready to climb into the raft.

 We share our raft with a mother and her 2 daughters.

Our guide gives us the instructions for rowing and puts us through several practice rows before we start down the river.

Accompanying us is a guide in a kayak.  He makes sure we don't drift off where we should not go...

 

The river is a grade 3 river with an exciting grade 5 waterfall. What follows are photos of our rafting adventure that we will never forget!

Here's the whitewater...

 We are about to go over our first "rapid" drop.

 Made it....now for the next one...ROW, ROW, ROW we heard our guide yell.

 "PADDLES UP", which really means hang on!

 Down we go...

 Made it!

 Now ready for the BIG one!

 Yep, that's us buried in the water.

A sigh of relief that we surfaced!

Here's the waterfall we just conquered...

Oh, yes, we feel triumphant!

On to the next challenge!

Now our guide surprises us and asks if anyone would like to body surf over a small falls.  To my astonishment, Terry, my husband who really doesn't like swimming, says "I do!"  Well, that put the pressure on the rest of us so we all ended up body surfing, on our stomachs, head first, arms outstretched over the next falls.    We were to get to the far left on the river before going over.  Terry leads and we all follow....but not exactly right behind him!

Our instruction was to get into the fetal position once over the falls as you would be underwater and this position would help you pop right up like a cork.  

Okay, that was easy enough, but what was very hard was to now swim over to the raft waiting for us on the shore.  The current was so strong that myself and a couple others had to have a rope thrown to us and then be dragged over to the shore by our guide.

When I reached the shore, I looked for Terry, who is not a strong swimmer, and found out that he had gotten into the current that took him directly over to the raft....he didn't have to swim at all!

The photographer didn't take any photos during the body surfing....which is good as I'm sure we all looked like drowning rats. Haha 

At the next rapids, our guide positions the front of the raft into the flow of water going over the rocks...yes, that sounds like fun!  At least we are back inside the raft.

 I'm confident; Terry....not so much!

 Oh, oh, here we go...

 The front of the raft, with us in it, is submerged...

 We come up for air...

And get dunked again.

This time the gals in back of us start floating to the front of the raft.

We stay submerged...

 until the guide finally backs us away from the falls.

That's the end of the rafting and I look very relieved.  It was a lot more wild than I ever imagined!  I can check Class 5 whitewater rafting off my bucket list!!

 Here's the entire group, including guides and photographer's daughter.

It was a lot of fun; so glad we finally had a chance to do it.

We are then off to the next port, which will also be our last port on our cruise.  The ship will continue on through the South Pacific and then the USA and Canada.  We opted to end here as we have already been gone from home for 6 weeks.

The ship docks in Auckland and we say goodbye to our traveling friends, and disembark the ship.

Auckland is a port that we visited in 2010 and had a great tour here.  To read about it, click here.

Today we really only need to get to the airport.  But since our flight does not leave until early evening and we need to be off the ship in the morning, I contacted Milestone Tours and booked the half-day city siteseeing and transfer to the airport tour.

The city of Auckland is based around two harbors filled with super yachts and sailboats.  Therefore, it is fondly referred to as the "City of Sails".

Internet photo

We take off on our tour and drive through the city, passing high rise buildings and the Sky Tower.

 

Our first stop is at the top of Mount Eden, an area of extinct volcanoes.

 Maungawhau is one of the 48 volcanic cones and the highest natural point in Auckland.

Volcanic cones in the foreground; the city in the distance.

Next stop is One Tree Hill.  

 As one of Auckland's most prominent volcanic landmarks, One Tree Hill was named after the lone pine that once stood near the monument at the summit of the extinct volcano.

 Cornwall Park is at the base of the volcano.  It has large acacia trees and lots of sheep grazing.

 We then drove along Paratai Drive in a clifftop that is one of Auckland's more expensive suburbs.

 We stopped at the Achilles Point viewpoint with a spectacular view.

 Then it was time to stroll along the beach in Mission Bay while we enjoyed a gelato treat.

Back in the van we stop by Auckland's War Memorial Museum for just a look outside.

 The "Fields of Remembrance" honor those that served in all the Australian/New Zealand wars for the last 175 years.  The crosses are decorated with red poppies for the upcoming ANZAC Day, April 25.

 Getting closer to the airport, we take a drive across the Harbor Bridge and stop by Westhaven Marina.

 The Harbor Bridge.

 Our last stop to kill some time before being dropped off at the airport is the Auckland Botanical Gardens.

 We strolled around a bit...

Then it was off to the airport.  We fly at 7:45 pm on a Tuesday; we arrive back in Denver at 9:30 pm on the same day!   Don't be fooled....it was a very long flight!

So that is it for this Australian/New Zealand adventure.  Thanks for reading along.

Stay tuned for our next adventure this fall....The Amazon River and Rainforest in Peru.  I'm sure we are going to see some pyranha!