The best day on the river EVER

I've been out of touch with the modern world for over three weeks now. As such, I haven't been responding to email nor posting on the blog with any frequency. However, I must immediately detail the best day on the river I've ever had.

It began on the Rangitata River last Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday had seen torrential rainfall and the river was well above commercial rafting levels. But our rescue course was still all-go. We started off by rapelling down a steep hill to the side of the river and then swimming across the river while moving downstream nearly a mile. That's how fast the water was moving. Everything we did was pretty safe though - we had safety kayakers, cover rafts, and rope throwers all positioned downstream for us.

After that cold brisk beginning, we carried the rafts up a steep hill on the far side of the river to a pasture where a helicopter came, picked them up and flew them further up the gorge. We followed on foot with the rest of the gear running about 6km. It didn't seem like it was going to be the best day ever when we began....

However, we got to the top and did the coolest activites. We started off by rescuing a "swimmer" trapped against a wall with a tethered swimmer. As the tethered swimmer, you got a rope attached to your back and then you swim in, grab the "swimmer" and then everyone on the shore pulls you back up stream to where they are.

From there, we built a Tyrolean crossing (zipline) over the river and zipped over. Then we re-anchored ourselves and rappelled down a cliff to the water's edge to rescue another "swimmer." Then we jumped into the river and swam to rock in the middle of the river with a deflated raft wrapped around it. One at a time, we each had to use our knife to cut the raft off the rock and rescue the "swimmer" trapped between the raft and the rock. Badass.

From there, we learned how to do helicopter rescues where we approached the helicopter with a stretcher carried by a team of four. The rotor wash was quite powerful.

We also did some first aid, raft guiding, and other more mundane activities. Alas, it was the best day on the river I've EVER had.