A popular sport in the area is sledging… never heard of it, but we watched the youtube video and it looked like fun, so why not? (more on that later) They give you something that looks like a cross between a kayak and a boogie board, a helmet, and a small pair of swim fins to go down rapids.

They took us down to the river at the spot just below a Class 5 waterfall that the white water rafters were doing. Our guides reassured us that we would not be doing anything greater than a Class 3 on our sledges! They put us on the lawn and gave us our instructions with our 4 new closest friends - and asked us again if “we were sure about what we signed up for”. Felt like he was looking right at us when he said that - we clearly skewed the age demograpic (again!). Hummmm…

We climbed down to the river with our sledges on our heads, but I had no trouble letting the guide carry my sledge for me when he offered. Kinda felt like the old lady, and here was a nice young man offering to carrying my groceries for me. Yes - they were heavy, but needed to be, since they are the protection from the rocks.

… and then we did our first practice shove off. There had been a lot of rain, so the river was running extra fast. Yeah?

We waited for the rafts coming over the waterfall to pass us by (wish I had a pic of that waterfall!). So far so good, and still smiling…

We got all kinds of instruction on how to try and navigate the currents, what to do when your sledge flips over, try to stay away from the rafts - etc..

… Then our guide told us to follow him in single file

I needed a little “extra help” to make it over this one…. See the guide pulling me over - and I might be looking a little unsure :)

Not gonna lie - had a few doubts along the way, but we were committed! Luckily we got to stop and take a few breaks. It definitely was NOT a “cruise” down the river, but more of a “do a rapid and recover” strategy. Tom smiled the whole way!

We made it to the last fall, and the guides set us up to “surf it”. That was cool…

The idea is to get the nose of the sledge up above the wave (important part), and just ride it. Seemed easy enough (was channeling “Wanaka Day 40”). The second go around, the guide tells us to wave at the camera while we are surfing (and the advanced move is waving with both hands) - well, so of course I had to try!

… and then I lost control of the sledge and the nose slipped under the wave

…and it went all down hill from there!

All caught on camera, while I broke the #1 rule - “Never let go of your sledge”! We had really awesome guides and they knew exactly what to do. Not sure if I would do it again, but we made it through in one piece! Gonna be sore tomorrow - actually pretty sore now! :)