A Canuck in Oz: White Water Rafting (Dun Dun Dun..)

We arrived in Cairns on a Wednesday afternoon and had a pub crawl that night through four bars. The next morning I had signed up for white water rafting with about ten other people. I wasn't feeling too well after the pub crawl anyway not to mention the nerves for the rafting. It was a two hour drive to Tully where the river is so I had a good nap the whole way and woke up feeling better and ready to go! I didn't really have any idea what to expect but after the first rapids I loved it and was having a great time. And then it wasn't so great..
We got to a set of rapids called The Staircase and it was classified as Stage 4 out of a possible 6 on a scale of the intensity of them. We got down the first bit and our boat turned to the right so that my side of the boat was backwards. When we hit the bottom a guy on the opposite side fell forward hitting the person beside me who then fell on top of me knocking me into the water and underneath the raft. I was stuck under the raft for about ten seconds. Others on the raft said they were really worried when the two guys' heads popped up but I was nowhere to be found. After what felt like AGES I came up beside the raft but before anyone could grab me I was swept off by the rapids. I was told to put your feet up facing downstream and stay calm but whenever I got my feet up I was taken underwater and flipped around so much that it didn't make much difference. I have never felt like I was going to die before that but there was a moment where I barely had any breath left and I honestly thought that was it. Finally I caught onto a rock long enough to catch my breath and then I was taken down to the end of the rapids where I heaved myself onto shore and just started bawling and hyperventilating. I had a pretty bad cut on my knee and ankle and sore bits all over my body. After calming down I wanted to keep going but the pain was too much so I had to spend the rest of the day on the bus. It was a fun experience at first but it's safe to say I will never be white water rafting again!!