I'd booked a trip on the famous Shotover Jet boats on arriving in Queenstown. The cost was $75NZ and I booked for the following morning, although I could have got a slot the same day. The Shotover jet boating is a bit of a production line outfit, in the sense that it is all very geared for high turnover efficiency. I have been told that the Dart Jet Boat safari is a much better "experience" if you want to really get away from it all and experience some of NZ's outdoors (albeit in a rather high-tech vehicle!). I believe the Dart River trip takes 2 or 3 hours, while with the Shotover trip you are really just in the boat for about 25 minutes - though its a fairly high octane 25 minutes!
Anyhow, I chose to book the Shotover ride and turned up at the bus pickup in Queenstown next morning at 9:20.
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The bus trip out to the Shotover Jet site is quite short. The site is located just below the end of the rafting section of the shotover, where the river goes through an old mine tunnel. Last trip I went on the rafting trip - it is, as they say, rather exciting... However this trip its just the Jet Boat trip I went on. |
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One of the features of Jet Boats is their ability to turn in a very tight circle. The drivers make full use of this "feature" to make sure everyone gets quite wet! They do this a number of times during the trip, and also just off the launching pad, where an onshore photographer takes some photos. I assume it must all be done digitally as the photos are already printed and ready for purchase at the shop within a few minutes of the end of the ride - a rather impressive use of technology. |
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Another feature of the trip is they way they skim past rocks. Its all done very well (and rather more safely than they try to make out, I suspect!). Learning my lesson from the helicopter trip, I fairly aggressively positioned myself to get into the front row of the boat and found myself in the middle seat beside the driver. You are provided with a life jacket and a plastic overcoat - and its probably not a good idea to bring along an expensive camera! |
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Its actually quite hard to find good locations to take photos of the ride up and down the river. However on the road in from Queenstown there is quite a good overlook where you can look down on the boats as they pass. Here we see another typical skim past some rocks - when you are in the boat it certainly appears rather closer than this photo implies! |
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Just downstream of the launch site is an attractive bridge over the river which provides one of the more photogenic frames for the jet boats as they skim up and down. As the boats are leaving every few minutes during peak hours you don't have to wait too long for one to come along. |
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Leaving Queenstown, I headed off towards Te Anau and my next night stop. Took a side trip down to the town of Kingston, where there was a steam train. Saw some people filming an interview with the driver - but was not bold enough to get close and take their photos. Apparently you can take a ride on the train along the valley. |
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Approaching Te Anau, the weather started to look pretty dodgy again. Fiordland has one of the highest rainfalls in NZ and this was not a good start! |
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