Jetboating it!
Trip Start
Sep 02, 2007
1
47
61
Trip End
Feb 28, 2008
Queenstown, New Zealand
Sunday, January 20, 2008
The trip was on a Jetboat on the Shotover River. The bus picked us up from Queenstown and it was a 45 minute drive to reach the launch site in Skippers Canyon. What we hadn't realised was that the trip into the canyon would be on an unsealed road only wide enough for one lane with a sheer drop to one side. Mark reckoned there wouldn't be any traffic coming the other way but he hadn't reckoned upon tourist trips into this once gold-rich area and the many rafting buses travelling down. The bus rides proved to be far scarier than the jetboat ride.
Once we were on the jetboat our driver did a 360 degree turn to start us off, so that a photo could be taken. Then we were whizzing upstream and the driver would take us towards a jagged rockface before suddenly steering away at the last minute, much to the amusement of a little boy sat next to Theresa, and Mark too (another little boy!). A few big turns sprayed us with water, we were lovin' it! We also saw a 102m bungy above us on the way which has now been usurped by a nearby 143m jump site. We could also see the remains from the gold mining industry. When we turned around to go downstream the driver picked up the pace, increasing the amount of spray we got in our face!
After returning our life jackets the bus driver took us to the ex-bungy site. Here we had a look at the jetboat photo as well as walking on the bridge people used to bungy from and getting a little feeling of vertigo. From here it was back up out of the canyon passed four busloads of rafters, plus trailers full of boats on the back. Finally we got back to a real road and into Queenstown to enjoy the afternoon sunshine.
The next morning we headed to Wanaka, the location for Mark's skydive...
Love Mark and Theresa xxxx
