Today is a beautiful day and I am going water sledging with White Water Sledging.

Also called Hydrospeed, this sport is all about surfing down a river lying on individual sledge. Sledges are made in the same plastic as kayak and are very resistant. They are very buoyant, comfortable, safe and maneuvrable. They have the size of a bodyboard but are much more resistant and said to be faster too.

One of our guide is bringing me to the starting point of the Kawaray river about an hour from Wanaka.

About seven other people are joining us from Queenstown.

After a brief theoretical course, we put on our gears: a 5mm padded wetsuit, booties, life jacket, helmet and fins for kicking and steering. The water is never get called even in the winter. Its temprature is now 14 degrees Celsius and thanks to our wetsuits, we never got cold.

Basically, you have to stay in the middle of the river. our main guide is at the of the group, making signs indicating which direction we should point our sledge and if we have to use our fins. front and two guides are in the back, helping us keep together. You can get very quickly from the front the the back of the group so that's good.

The Kawarau river scenary is beautiful, the water is deep and going sometime faster and sometime slower. It's realyy exciting to pass the still waves in the middle of the river.

After about 45 minutes of great fun, we land smoothly on a sand beach and the jeep is taking us for another ride. But this time we start 800m up the river. At this starting spot, you can surf a river wave: you face the upper stream and just move from the left to the right. In our group, only one girl succeeded to surf the wave. The trick is to get close to the rock where the wave is powerful enough to get you surfing. You should also be ready to give a lot of strong kicks with your fins! I alsmost got it but I was a little too much on the left and couldn't catch the wave. Maybe with a few more kicks I would have done it!

We continue and the river is so beautiful and I thing that the second time you feel more confident to ride the big waves and you start to understand where is the middle of the river. In fact, our front guide says that he is the leasiest because he stays in the middle of the river and doesn't have to make too much fin kicks. We then experience rolling with the sledge and popping up the water.

It's now time to land again on the sandy beach and to get back to the first spot where our dry clothes wait for us. Sandflies are around so don't forget to bring your repellent spray. We then enjoy some refreshment and a very welcome snack: orange juice, cereal bars and very tasty apples bought from a local market.

I really had a lot of fun! Unlike rafting, you are in control! This sport was invented and imported by a few frenchmen to Wanaka 15 years ago. That why they say: Frogz have more fun. I asked what was the meaning of there motto: 'Now you can trust a Frenchman wearing a wetsuit'. It's a good joke related to the time of the Rainbow Warriors: the french secret agents dived and sank the Green Peace boat...

Check this article again for more pictures in the water!

Phone: 64 3 443 9130
Fax: 64 3 443 8244
Bookings 0800 338 737
www.frogz.co.nz
frogz_nz@yahoo.com