Day 30- March 7th
The next morning my mom was so nervous that we decided to follow the guided trip. We did this for a while and followed them through the rapids. It finally got sunny and we all warmed up.
Then the wind picked up, and because we had packed so light, our canoes were getting blown around and we couldn’t keep up. My dad and sisters boat was unbalanced, since my sister was so much lighter that my dad, so they kept turning in circles. We tried to wait for them, but the river was too fast and we went through one of the rapids without them.
On the other side of the rapid we waited for them and after a long time saw them go through the rapid. We were pulled further downstream where we waited again. They didn’t come around the corner for a long time and we were worried that something had happened.
When they did come around the corner, we found out that they had been caught in a eddy and had to get out and pulled the canoe along the shore. Now the wind picked up again and they kept getting spun around. We were already late for our pick up and if we were a hour late they would charge us $150.
The other group that had been at the campground then came around the corner and offered to swap a paddler with with my sister. This really helped, and we managed to get to the take out in time and loaded our boats on the truck. My mom declared she would never get in a canoe again, but I had a lot of fun on the trip.
When we were talking to group that had helped us, we found out that they knew some good friends of ours. These friends had lived in Juneau at the same time as us and lived near us while we lived in Washington. They also had spent time in New Zealand and happened to be friends with these people as well.
After driving back to the office, we unloaded our stuff and drove 2 hours to Waitomo, where we checked into a nice B&B called Te Tiro. My sister quickly made friends with the owners’ daughter, who was also 11. We were all pretty tired and fell asleep right after dinner.
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