The owner of Wellington Rafting has just taken five tourists down the rapids of the Te Awa Kairangi/Hutt river.
It has been a good morning for it - rain the previous day has lifted the river levels, giving customers a thrilling ride as they flew over gushing white water.
It can be a dangerous sport, with potential problems around every bend, but Watters has his safety protocols down pat.
"That stuff we can mitigate, by studying the environment... we find ourselves very, very connected to the elements," Watters said.
Customers are given a full run-down of the hazards before they go near the water and are prepared with a safety briefing. Before hopping into the rafts, customers don hard hats, wetsuits and lifejackets.
Wellington Rafting is one of roughly 300 registered adventure tourism operators in New Zealand trying to strike a balance between offering exciting and potentially dangerous experiences while keeping their customers safe. Now, that responsibility will be even greater.
Adventure tourism safety has been pulled into sharper focus after a court ruling last month found the owners of Whakaari/White Island guilty of failing to adequately communicate the risks to visitors touring the active volcano.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 24, 2023 من The Guardian Weekly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 24, 2023 من The Guardian Weekly.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Democracy Comes Under Scrutiny Amid Battle To Buy Basics
After 25 years, Nigeria's role as the region's police officer is in jeopardy, with its people losing faith in a squeezed economy
Civil War And Bloodshed? Conviction Infuriates Trump's Base
The posts are ominous. “Pick a side, or YOU are next,” wrote conservative talk show host Dan Bongino on the Truth Social media platform in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions.
'Forever War' Risk Grows As Militants Return To Gaza's North
Israel could inherit an insurgency, warns the US, after Hamas regains strength in areas it was forced to flee
A stranger for ever A family's struggles after the second world war are intimately captured across continents and generations
Here are some of the events that are not described in Claire Messud's ambitious novel about the lives of three generations of a Franco-Algerian family: the Algerian war of independence, as a result of which the Cassar family lose their home and national identity; the two years the family's most promising scion spends as a student in Paris, during which he endures something (racist bullying? Mental collapse?) that blights his adult life; his sister's broken-hearted suicide attempt; the courtship of a couple who have been held up throughout the novel as exemplars of married love and yet whose relationship - as we discover in the final pages - was shockingly transgressive.
Concrete comfort
China's 'lying flat' generation is drawn to seek spiritual solace among the brutalist blocks of the exclusive Aranya resort by innovative architecture and the power of social media
MONEY MONEY MONEY
TAYLOR SWIFT'S NEW ALBUM, The Tortured Poets Department, is not one of her best.
MY SECRET GERMAN GRANDAD
Women who 'fraternised' with German prisoners of war horrified British society. Could one of these illicit liaisons explain a mystery at the heart of Leo Hickman's family tree?
Sheinbaum signals hope, but can she pursue her own agenda?
A month ago in Chiapas, a Mexican state caught in a bloody battle between criminal groups, a car carrying the front runner to be the country's next president was stopped by a group of masked men.
Score draw Why anime is firing up young sports stars
The Bournemouth footballer Dominic Solanke twice thought he had scored the opening goal in a Premier League game against Brentford last month.
Kingmaker How will Meloni use her growing influence on EU politics?
Italy's far-right leader has so far been a model European. But this weekend's EU elections may reveal her hand