Hi y'all from Queenstown NZ...Again. Yep, we're still here, for a few more days, before we head off to our next location of Te Anau. It's an easy place to stay though - Great food, amazing scenery and awesome things to do!
Today we headed over to the Shotover River to ride some jet boats; well, jet boat [singular] was the plan, but it was so awesome we went twice!
I will do a better post about it when I get home featuring the entire video of our run and some images taken by the champs at Shotover Jet however for now here's a few images and a little background information about jet boat awesomeness.
Just to clarify what a jet boat is: These boats are powered by two V8 engines and have an [over] abundance of power. They work by sucking in water from underneath and pushing it out of two nozzle outlets at the rear. Turning these outlets steers the boat. The boat sucks in just under 800 litres of water a second - pushing it out of the two 10 centimetre diameter nozzles creating thrust. They only need 10 centimetres of water to run in, so about ankle deep water. This means they can run very close to the shore in almost no water and very close to the gigantic rocks in the gorge.
The purpose-built boats hit speeds of 90k/ph and can do 360 degree spins, sharp turns and basically scare the bejeezus out of people. The two I went in today cost just under $500,000 to build.
Image shows one of the boats coming out of the gorge-section heading upstream on the Shotover River. I took this from one of the lookouts above the river.
I took these from the bank near the dock area. They show one of the boats, complete with thrill-seekers, coming upstreem out of the gorge. The boats do about 70k/ph at this point and most usually do a 360 spin in this area. There is no set run for each trip - The pilot can make it up as he goes.
It's difficult to explain how close to the rocks the pilots bring these boats but certainly close enough to reach out and touch them - It you were dumb! It's a little unnerving the first few times it happens, but way cool too! Seriously, if you're in one of these boats and don't have a good time you're obviously dead. It's simply a blast!
The boat runs a course heading downstream of about 7.5 kilometres with plenty of thrills, 360 spins, bank-hugging and rock-buzzing antics along the way. They stop at a few points for a minute to answer questions or have a laugh at all the screams from the girls and then we're it's back into it! They come back up stream and past the dock area heading up to where the rapids start. They turn, come downstream again past the dock, back into the gorge, do a turn then come back. Ride over. It's a great value ride and probably one of the most exciting thing some people may ever do.
A ride costs $159 for an adult so it's not the cheapest thing to do...But I said we went twice? Yep, for sure! The thing is that once you ride at full price you can take a second ride for...$19! Yep. Why wouldn't you go twice? We got the same driver the second time and were sitting right up the front with him - Him driving, [he wouldn't let me do so], and Faith and I next to him. Seriously good!
As stated earlier, I'm planning to do a much better post with loads of photos and the entire video of my run. It was taken by a forward and rear-facing DVR mounted on the boat plus from vantage points along the way. I won't be able to do that until I return home though, so you'll have to wait.
We also went to Arrowtown, an old town rich in gold mining heritage and with a couple of cool looking quaint little streets. We had lunch there, walked along the river a bit and then headed to the Kawaraua Gorge and the AJ Hacket Bungee location. It was an awesome day but it's still rolling out. Dinner at an Indian restaurant tonight, then a movie back at our apartment. Legit day!
Tomorrow we're heading on a four wheel drive trek to see some Lord of the Rings film sites and to do some gold panning. I'm going to be annoyed because they won't let me drive, but I'll just have to be a passenger on this occasion - In case you don't know, four wheel driving is one of my hobbies and to do so around here...Well, it would be amazing. Oh well, I think it'll still be a cracker of a day.
Laters y'all!
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