This life lesson relates to my previous blog post #65 Go Whitewater Rafting.
When I crossed #65 off my list, it was the first time I had ever been whitewater rafting. The only other time was last year, with my mum, along the Grand Canyon. Both were whitewater rafting tours, but they were vastly different.
The Kaituna River experience was short, only 50 minutes long, but it was packed with Grade 5 rapids and a huge 7 metre waterfall. The Grand Canyon was a 4‑day adventure with up to 8 hours on the river each day. We only tackled Grade 3 & 4 rapids on this trip and the scenery was the total opposite of the New Zealand bush along the Kaituna.
The thing is, both were amazing adventures, but for different reasons. The Kaituna was cheap, required very little planning and barely even put a dent in the rest of our trip. We had fun and then we kept moving throughout NZ.
The Grand Canyon required 9 months of planning, a very specific packing list, thousands of dollars, international flights, accommodation and 2 weeks of annual leave. Despite all this, it was one of the best trips I have ever done.
Sometimes we have these burning desires to do things, like mine to go whitewater rafting. Sometimes we may be confident that we are going to love it and jump into a long tour. However, sometimes we are curious, but unsure.
It is important to have variety in adventure and I don’t think I truly learned this lesson until I got back from the Grand Canyon. I had no idea about whitewater rafting until the Kaituna, but I loved it, so the option to spend days camping along the Colorado River sounded amazing to me.
Furthermore, I looked into the options on the Grand Canyon and we could have done the full river over 14 days. I thought this would be too long on the river, but after doing 4 days, I realised it was not enough and I’m ready to sign up for the 14-day tour.
They say that variety is the spice of life and that goes for adventure, as well. If there was only one option for adventure tours, we would miss out on doing a lot of fun stuff. The Kaituna was my steppingstone, or should I say gateway drug, because I now have another adventure addiction to add to my ever-growing list.
If you’re curious about an adventure activity, do what I did and easy into it. You might just find a new addiction for yourself.
What adventures have you dabbled in? Let me know in the comments below.
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Dave has been on a mission, since 2010, to cross off the 100 items on his bucket list. The stories of his adventures are complimented by life lessons learned along the way and his travel tips are unique to his experiences.
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