Your First Rafting Trip, Hour by Hour

You report to an office in town, not to the river. Paperwork and payment happen there, you leave what you are carrying in a locker or with the office, and you change into what you are going to get wet in. Then you are driven upstream to the launch point, which takes thirty to forty-five minutes on a hill road.

At the launch you are fitted with a jacket and a helmet and given the briefing, which is where the paddle commands and what to do in the water are covered. The briefing is the five minutes of the day that genuinely matters, and it is the five minutes people talk through.

You paddle. This is the commonest surprise — a raft is not a ride, it is steered by the people in it on the guide's commands, and on the bigger rapids that paddling has to be immediate and in time with everyone else. It is not exhausting, but it is work.

Between rapids there are long flat sections where very little happens and the valley is the point. That is where the cliff jump and the body surfing get offered, both optional.

You land at NIM Beach and are driven back to town. Changing facilities at the office are basic — a cubicle, not a spa — so bring a towel and dry clothes and expect to be damp for a while.

Phones do not come on the raft. Leave yours in the locker rather than in a pocket, buy the GoPro package if you want pictures, and accept that the one photo you wanted of the big rapid is the one the river took.