river surfing

I am very achy and sore after horse riding yesterday and then river surfing today. the ride was good, we saw some great LOTR locations including where the oliphants get ambushed, lothlorien, and the misty mountains. I was on a horse called Alaska who was a bit jumpy as all the horses have a hierachy and although we were specially put into a line he didn't like the horse in front, who kept trying to kick him. some of the horses were stars in LOTR, including in one battle scene where 350 horses were multiplied a few times. however in this scene one of the stables horses was fired for being naughty and kicking and biting the other horses, which caused a chain reaction of everyone falling off. one of the other horses was also one of the riders of rohan.
this morning's river suring session was fantastic, we got picked up and then there was a 40 minute bus ride to the start point. one of the people who got on i'd met before, she was on my stray bus earlier on in the trip, which was weird. well it wasn't really, you get used to meeting people over and over again here.
we had a few instructions on the bus, such as hand signals and rules (stay close to the guide, the 'mama duck', and stay in the centre of the channel) and then got changed into steamer wetsuits and boots and flippers and helments before having a bit more instruction beside the water such as how to hold the body board so you don't fall off. then we all had to jump in (water temperature about 12 degrees) and do a bit of practicing before paddling into the rapids and going for it. we got two goes down the river, one a practice one and then a fun one where we could hit some more extreme lines.
well it was fantastic, for anyone who knows rafting the rapids were classed as 2-3, so not that difficult but great fun when you're actually in the water. it was a bit like paddling a body board in the sea but with non of the faff of getting out back, just constant white water. luckily there were a few places to catch your breath between rapids. each rapid had a name like 'maneater' 'rollercoaster' and 'dead cow'. you could hit things like standing waves, whirlpools and 'squirters' where you push your board under and you get sucked along for a bit. if you get splatted on a rock like i did you have to point your board 45 degrees upstream and paddle like hell til you get back in the current. if you try and continue paddling down stream after being splatted on a rock you just get splatted some more.
anyway so there you go, FANTASTIC fun, make sure you do it if you get a chance. i would have wanted to go again if i could but i was absolutely exhausted.
oh some bad news yesterday (well bad news ish) i got back from riding and the housekeepers (or someone) had very kindly cleaned out the stuff in the fridge and taken all my food. great. i complained and got my milk back but the rest of it was gone (including mango and chilli chutney, balsamic vinegar and philedelphia!) so i was not very happy. however today they gave me a refund of 15 dollars which was nice, they didn't have to do that, however i'd still rather have the food as there's no point buying replacements as i'm getting on the plane in a few days.
its pouring with rain here today so i think i'm going to see Happy Feet at the cinema this afternoon. ;-)