Day 12 Queenstown Rafting and No Bungy

We get up early and hungover.  The bus picks us up for rafting at 7:30am.  Brad staying out late the night before and up to crazy shenanigans cannot be waken.  I yell Brad get up the bus is leaving!  I push Brad, I shake Brad, I hit Brad.  Nothing works!  I head for the bus.  As soon as I get on the bus everyone yells, "Where's Brad?"  I respond the guy is not making it I tried everything!  Caitlin volunteers to go try and wake him up.  I wish her goodluck.  5 minutes later Brad appears half awake, half sleeping.
The bus takes us to the rafting base where we get suited up, wetsuit, boots, lifejacket, helmet, etc.  We then board another bus that will take us to the drop point for rafting.  By the way it is raining and freezing we're all chivering our butts off.  Our bus driver known as "Chief" is this dark, samoan looking man with long hair.  I think Chief maybe Maori but I don't ask.  He gives a little briefing tells us the most dangerous part of today will be the drive to where we start rafting.  I laugh it off like whatever!
20 minutes into the drive and I swear we were filming an episode of "World's Deadliest Roads"!  Chief is flying down a single, unpaved, curvy, mountain road at about 40mph where the road is so narrow the wheels barely fit on it.   He's yelling, he's singing, he's looking back at me through his rearview mirror.  What he is doing is scaring the shit of me and everyone else on our bus.  I look off to the side of the road and see no road but a mirror thread of water about 3000 feet below.  I start praying!  We make it, prayers answered.  As I get off Chief smiles at me and asks "What did you think USA"?  I said Chief thanks, you brought me closer to God.  He laughs "I should be a preacher not a driver!"
We get paired up with our rafting guide and in our boat is Brad and Little Jake (my roommates), Bill and Krista (Wisconsin couple), and Sidney (Aussie country girl from Adelaide).  Brad and Bill are upfront.  Myself and Krista second row, Little Jake and Sidney last row.  Bill yells "No funny business!"  I said hey I'm just here to protect your wife.  Little Jake can hardly sit still in the raft he is flying around learning how to hold an oar.  "No camera, no photos!"  Yes Jake they dont want your camera to be ruined as you will get wet.  "We must facebook"  Yes Jake when we get back.  
The trek down the river lasts about 2.5 hours as we navigate through a series of class 3 and 4 rapids.  My adrenaline wasn't really pumping on this one.  I enjoyed the trip but admittedly I have rafted harder stuff before.  The hardest being in the Tully River in Australia 8 years ago and the next hardest being Cache Creek north of the Bay Area.  There were times during our river trek where we had to get down and hold onto our partner but it never felt really crazy.  I agree with Chief the drive was way more dangerous.
We finish our rafting and I know that the Nevis Bungy awaits me.  A 140 meter drop the tallest Bungy in the Southern Hemisphere.  Perhaps that was why I wasn't enjoying the rafting as much.  Perhaps it was the constant rain and crappy weather.  Whatever it was I managed to talk myself out of the Nevis Bungy.  1. I didn't want to jump off something while it was raining, weather matters to me.  2. I've never bungy jumped before so maybe i should start with something shorter in height.  3. Everyone else was bailing Brad included as the guy could barely keep his eyes open during our rafting trek. 4. It would be Nostalgic to jump off the original Karawau bridge where bungy first started with AJ Hacket. 5.  More people from our tour would be doing the bridge so I would feel more comraderie and pressure to complete the jump at the same time.  6. I'm sort of on a budget and Karawau is $180 vs $240 for Nevis.  Done deal I cancel Nevis and schedule myself for the Karawau bridge the following morning along with the rest of my tour mates.      
That night we have an early dinner and realize that Little Jake's heavy partying has finally caught up to him.  The guy had been back at the hotel sleeping it off and totally missed out.  So I got with Bridget and we decided we were going to launch a new "Operation Wake Up Jake".  So we all got off the bus congregated outside our room and then 3-2-1 we rushed him.  The video speaks for itself priceless!  



Brad and I stay up late with Little Jake that night talking about everything.  It was then that Little Jake revealed he had a crush on his rafting buddy Sidney.  We were shocked what?!?  He said "When raft guide say get down, I got down, hold Sidney's hand, very soft, I like"!  Is that not the cutest thing ever Little Jake now has his first official trip crush where do we go from here?  Oh yeah Bungy manana!