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Event three in the Awesome Foursome - a helicopter ride from the end of the Jet-boating to the beginning of event four, the white water rafting.

Six minutes of heavy leaning, J-turns and rapid acceleration and deceleration later, we drop down onto the rock strewn river.

Here we meet our guides and are instructed in the ins and hopefully not outs of rafting. Again we are kitted out in helmets, lifejackets and wetsuits.

Paddling down the river we discover that, of the fifteen or so rafts, we are the lead - our guide is the boss!

Its cold, and the wind chill is high in the river valley - the sun no longer reaching us. So we paddle to keep warm, and, as our guide keeps reminding us, to stay alive...

Bouncing over grade 3 rapids is no problem since we've been through them at water level the day before.

A few gentle swirls and plenty of horseplay with the other boats ensues until we reach the first of the 'series' rapids.  We're about to enter 'Jaws' - a left handed grade 5 followed by 'Anvil', 'The toilet' and 'The Raft Buggerer' (or something).

The series is a lot of fun - our guide barks instructions 'right', 'left', 'faster', 'stop' and 'get down'... and we crash through barely missing rocks and canyon walls.

That morning they'd lost an eighteen stone Hawaiian over the side - and try as they might his Japanese co-rafters could not pull him in. So he'd gone through clinging to the side of a raft until more burly people arrived... This is a dangerous sport!

The end of the trip was spectacular - we enter a cave blasted through the rock to divert the river. Some 50 metres later we exit and totally unexpectedly drop ten feet into a white foaming whirlpool - The Cauldron. (Actually it should have been expected but we'd all forgotten our guides instruction).  We are now back at the river jet area.

So, finally shedding our wetsuits, we head into a communal sauna to warm up - we're all frozen.

But we've done the Awesome Foursome, and have the t-shirts to prove it.

That's enough of that Adrenalin malarkey - time to book that wine tasting tour...

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