If you’d told me last year that I’d spend my birthday surfing white-water rapids, hauling strangers back into a boat, and then screaming down a river on a jet boat with my daughter… I’d have laughed. Yet here we are. New Zealand rewriting the script again.
I kicked off the day with two hours of Grade 3 white-water rafting. Sixty rapids in total, and every single one felt like nature’s version of a rollercoaster that didn’t bother with safety rails.
There’s something insane about being in a raft that’s being fired down a river faster than your brain can fully process. You’re steering, paddling, bracing, weaving around rocks, and then suddenly noticing how unbelievably beautiful everything is behind the chaos. Ferns leaning over the water. Sunlight hitting spray. Deep green gorges. It’s like your senses receive more data per second than you’ve got bandwidth to handle.
And just when I thought I’d mastered it, the last rapid hit.
A big one.
Someone from our raft went flying out and before anyone could shout instructions, we I already diving into rescue mode. i dragged them back in. Meanwhile the two girls in the front had no idea anything had even happened. They were too busy spinning and laughing at the wave that had just slapped them in the face.
Chaos, adrenaline, teamwork, beauty, and a bit of heroics. Not a bad way to spend a birthday morning.
Now you would think after all that I’d had enough water for the day. Nope. Bring on round two… Ali had more plans.
We headed straight to the jet boat experience, blasting back up the river to the base of Huka Falls the same waterfall we admired from above yesterday. The difference between “looking at it” and “being fired at it in a boat doing 360-degree spins” is night and day.
Georgia absolutely screamed her head off in that perfect mix of terror and joy. Every spin, every sudden skid, every spray of water sent her into fits. I held the rail and pretended I wasn’t getting drenched, but I absolutely was. The power of the water hitting you as you spins and then the falls hitting you almost blinds your senses, It’s like an alive wall of roaring water and mist.
Standing up there yesterday, it was impressive. Being level with it today… totally surreal.
By the time we made it home, we were soaked, tired, buzzing, and starving.
Picture perfect birthday? Honestly… yeah.
New Zealand seems determined to make every day feel bigger, louder, greener, faster, and fuller than the last. And today delivered all of it at once.
Rapids. Rescue. Roaring waterfalls. Jet boats. Kid laughter. Pure adrenaline. Pure joy.
Not your average birthday.
But absolutely one I’ll never forget.
About the Author
