They say this is the largest raftable waterfall in the world, dropping 21 feet. The name of the river, Kaituna, means “fish food” which is what you’ll be if you don’t make it. We did a radical raft maneuver called GET DOWN, which means that you sit down on the floor of the raft between the pontoons, hold onto the edge of the raft and your paddle with one hand, hold onto a handhold on the floor of the raft with the other hand and duck your head. We had the raft completely at a 90 degree straight down position. One out of five rafts that try this waterfall flip over. They said a native Maori prayer prior to our going over the falls about courage and safe water.

Sue and I are in the second row. We submerged the entire raft at the bottom of the waterfall.