Kaituna River Rafting: An Unforgettable Adventure on New Zealand’s Exhilarating Rapids
Kaituna River was used as New Zealand’s first power station plant in 1901 – 1936. Today it is a world famous destination for kayaking and white water rafting in the Bay of Plenty region in the Northern Island of New Zealand.
The picture above shows we’re about to drop at The Weir, one of the many drops along Kaituna.
My trip to this beautiful place is unforgettable. Two days into the trip, I was white water rafting in Kaituna. In the upper section of Kaituna is the Okera River, which has the highest commercial waterfall drop in the world.
The drop is 7 meters (23 feet) high and it wasn’t so bad. Thanks to the guy at the back, one with the yellow vest, our raft didn’t flip. He also had us do a ritual by the banks before we go for the drop. The ritual was to take a leaf and drop it into the river. If the leaf is flipped upside down, the raft will flip when we drop. Luckily enough, he chose me to do the honors, threw it in the river and it was the right side up, and guess what…we didn’t flip!
White Water Rafting in Sungai Padas: Thrilling River Experience in Borneo
White water rafting in Padas was exhilarating! Different from Kaituna, it has wider river width and has a distance of 30 kilometers. The water was not as clear as Kaituna due to logging, but the rapids are perfect! Padas River is known to have the best and safest rapids in South East Asia. I recall going into the starting point of the river and it was rather a classic adventure as we had to ride a nostalgic looking train which was super small but could fit possibly 10 people in one cart. Some locals brought their goats into the train too.
The rafting took us about two hours. We had a break in between for lunch and for the rest of the ride, it was the best a long roller coaster ride with mother nature.