Bora Bora

Today the ship docked in Auckland, New Zealand,





We had an excursion booked for today to rappel. My mom was absolutely terrified. We got on the bus and met the two other people from the ship who would be touring with us today. Their names were Michael and Bobby. They were both fun to talk to. Bruce loves to do extreme and fun stuff and his kids and grand-kids are the same way. Michael also enjoys doing extreme tours and is traveling to all of his bucket list places and checking off lots of fun things. Our tour guide, Hovier, took us to the sky tower (the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere). Hovier went to get some people who weren’t on the cruise. While he was getting them we were able to hop out of the van and look around. They have two attractions at the top of the tower. One of them is getting hooked to a railing and walking around a small walkway with nothing to hold onto and the other is jumping off. You jump off, fall, die. Whoo Hoo! Just kidding, you fall and then the safety mechanism that you're attached to slows you down like a bungee cord that doesn’t bounce you back up. I was happy we weren’t signed up for that! Michael said that he had done it before. He said it was fun bat didn’t seem to think that it was any big deal. Hovier came back with the other two guests. They were nice, there names were Juana and David. We all talked and laughed the whole way there. Once we got there Hoveir told us where there were bathrooms and that we had some time to get coffee because we were right next to a coffee house. After we had all used the restroom and whatnot Hoveir told us all about the safety, technique, etc. He then gave us all wetsuits (which were really hard to put on) then drove us to a a small field where another guide named Cam (short for Campbell) met us. The two of them told us how to use our safety equipment and told us how to save another person’s life if they are falling. Micheal, David, and I were carrying backpacks. I had the smallest one.

Our whole group before the trip started.

                                   

Us as before we got ready for the adventure.                                     Hoveir giving us a debriefing.    

We hopped in the car and went to the starting point of our journey. We wiped our shoes and stepped on a pedal that sprayed them with a chemical. Which was located at the entrance of the trail to stop bug infestations. We hiked and hiked and went up and up and up stairs and up trails and up very steep slopes for a very far distance. Then we stopped at a place with a fork in the trail to rest for a moment. The three of us with packs were all sick of carrying them. Hoveir gave us all a big chunk of chocolate and a chug of water. Cam asked If people wanted to go the easy way which is just fun or the extreme way which is much more strenuous and scary. It was a tough decision for my mom but everybody chose the extreme way. David gave his pack to Juana, I gave my pack to my mom, and Michael gave his pack to me. Well, actually I asked for the bigger pack because I wanted to really feel like I was helping. We then continued up the long steep hills, which was more challenging with the heavier pack but I really enjoyed the hiking. Then we came to the very top where Hovier ran through a few more safety instructions and told us what order we would be in for the descent. We attached to a safety line as we approached the edge.

Michael was up first. He was very good. He approached the edge of the cliff (which was right next to a waterfall). He had done rappelling before and had no trouble getting down whatsoever. Next up was Juana, then David, who both did just fine. Next, my mom who was absolutely terrified until she started doing it, then she was fine.

  

My mom on her first descent.

After that I was up. I connected to Hovier, disconnected from the safety line, connected to the rappelling rope, disconnected from Hovier and leaned back. It was really scary leaning back but after that it was OK. I held the rope behind my back with my right hand. I looked back and forth between my legs and over my right shoulder. Then I loosened my grip with my right hand and slowly started moving backwards. The descent was not scary, it was very fun. 

Me on my first decent.

When I got to the bottom I landed in a freezing cold pool that the waterfall ran into. I swam around in the pool while Bruce and Hovier came down. Cam was already at the bottom. Had thrown all the packs off of the cliff into the pool, then gone down and swam them to shore.

 Us in the pool.

Once everybody was down, we moved on. The next rapel was very short but it was rocky. Michael was at the bottom of the rope when I went and he pulled it tight when I slipped and started going too fast. It was a very exhilarating.

My mom on the second descent.

 After that I we hiked a bit before coming to the largest rappel. It was about 175 feet. This time, me and my mom got to go together. We started right next to each other, but unfortunately due to the slipperiness of the rocks from the splashing of the waterfall and my gym shoes with poor traction I slipped multiple times and rolled over a few times as well. About half way down the cliff the rocks were so wet that they had been covered in algae, and my feet slipped off and I pretty much just slid down the rope the rest of the way. I swam around in another pool then we all had lunch. As it turns out, there was an eel in the pool that we swam in. It was really cool, and Hovier fed it chicken from his sandwich. 

Me at the top of the third descent.

After that we continued to (in my opinion) the coolest rapell of them all. This one was in a small gorge literally under a waterfall. There was water pounding down on me the entire time and I couldn’t see where I was putting my feet. I got down it successfully and landed in a small and long lake. It was very deep (they all were) and I swam in it while everyone else came down. After swimming in it for a while I got out and Hovier threw in a piece of chicken. A BIG eel came out and ate it up. 

Our whole group at the bottom of the fourth descent.   

After that we did some extreme hiking which consisted of crawling through a cave, under a tree stump, and jumping off of a cliff! It was super cool! Then we got back in the van, dropped off our gear, and hovier took us back to the ship. We were late to get back to the ship but we weren’t last.

Pictures from the hike at the end of the adventure.

It was a fantastic day!

See ya!