True, this is only the second time I have ever done this.
Just a couple of days ago, I was all comfy at school learning about isotopes and trig ratios.
Then my class clambered into a bus and set off for the lodge in Mt Aspiring Park.
Cue: A week in the outdoors, with my homies, getting to know a very interesting part of our country.
Tramping, rock climbing, fishing, getting a sun tan, my kind of week!Except, now there's the scary bit - kayaking.
So I find myself affixed to one of these kayaks by some sort of neoprene skirt, launching out into the River of Doom.
Actually, it's called the Matukituki. Looks beautiful on a day like today, with the sun beating down and the cows well away from the shore.
From above, it glistens like a silvery snake. But now that I'm actually in this river, I feel like that snake is out to get me.
Somewhere ahead is a sequence of rapids.
My classmates assure me they are terrifying obstacles, designed to send a kayaker plunging into Davy Jones' locker via a slippery staircase of jagged rocks.
Whatever the case, something's at stake here.
Should I capsize in this little orange kayak, I will suffer humiliation.
I'm not going to be laughed at by those brats who failed their exams last year. I have to show them I can handle this.
However, I've only driven a kayak once before, never over a rapid.
What if I do capsize?
While I may seem tough, I guess I'm just as flimsy and fragile as the next year 10 guy.
I have an awful feeling that what might happen is my vessel gets inverted by a rapid. Oh no, I don't like that rushing noise . . .
No, there's the rapid I'm supposed to cross! I can see it now.
With the plastic paddle in my hands, I steer toward the middle of the river.
That's what the teacher in charge said to do.
Ahead of me is a bank of white water, stretching between the boulders on either side.
Churning and swirling chaos is approaching.
Vortices of water are all around, created by the flow over stones, ready to flip the whole kayak over.
I don't like the look of this.
One wrong move and I could end up stuck at the bottom of the Matukituki River. Rats.
Well, I can't pull out. I don't want to be joked about until I leave high school.
Don't want to be the boy who capsized at camp. Don't want to . . . wait a moment. Where'd that rapid go?
It seems to be behind me suddenly, but I'm not under water.
My God! I actually made it.
Adrenaline is pulsing through me and my heart quickens. That was exciting.
Now I can see the others in front of me; friends who also traversed the rapid without trouble.
Strangely, I hadn't been aware of them before.
Around me the river is tranquil again.
Ha! What was there to ever be scared of?
I notice that the mountainous landscape has lit up in sunlight.
Cows peacefully chat to each other, February flowers appear to have turned towards the sky.
Any earlier cloud has been swept out of sight.
I smile to myself. This is what the Mt Aspiring camp is all about: you try something new and conquer the outdoors.
Then you relax with your homies. Sweet. Um, how do I get out of this river?
By Thomas Stevenson, Year 13, Otago Boys' High School
