Fifth Day in New Zealand - Shotover River

One of the classic New Zealand adrenalin thrill activities is the jet boat. The Shotover Jet company invented this activity in 1970 and has taken more than 3 million people on the ride. Margot and I decided to sign up.

If it doesn't look that exciting be sure to check out the expression on the woman in front right seat.

Here is an overview of the operation. The main building is on the hill on the right center of the picture. There is a loading hut down by the river. It is movable to  account for changing river levels.

This is a picture of the one-lane highway bridge over the  Shotover River. I took the picture above and below from the bridge.

I don't think I mentioned this before but there are a surprising number of one-lane bridges in New Zealand. We must have encountered more than 25 during our driving. I guess this started out as a cost saving measure. It really isn't a problem - there just isn't that much traffic. There is a system to decide who gets the right-of-way and Kiwis seem to be polite enough and considerate enough to make it work.

Here you can see one of the boats headed for the bridge.  They go about 40 mph and are highly maneuverable with twin jets on the back.

These pictures were shot on two different days so you may some changes in lighting, etc. We went the first day to see if it was something we wanted to do. We came back the next day to take a ride.

The boats only need about 3.5 inches of water to operate at speed. As you can see the water is pretty shallow on the rock bar.

In a narrow and rocky river the 40 mph seems pretty fast.

Here the boat is headed back up river. The woman in front seems to be enjoying it a bit more now.

The company has a license to operate over a 4+ mile section of the river. Other boating activities are restricted. We did see a couple of recreational gold panners, though.

Here one of the boats is speeding down the canyon.

Here is the same boat a couple of seconds later.

They come pretty close to the walls of the canyon on purpose. It is amazing how quickly the boats can change direction. A couple of times I thought for sure we were in trouble but the driver knew what he was doing.

You can see that the driver is concentrating pretty hard.

The woman seems a little less sure at this point.

The signature move is the 360 turn. Here they spin around for a picture at the boat dock.

They provide a waterproof jacket to keep the spray off if you want it.

The first 3 or 4 were fun but I was pretty seasick by the time I got off. He must have done 7 or 8 over the course of the 20 minutes or so. I staggered off the boat and took a few minutes to get back to normal.

Highly recommended. Just take something if you have motion sickness.

Here is a video Margot shot. I've got a higher resolution version but I can't figure out how to put it in the blog, yet.

Fourth Day in New Zealand - Queenstown Scenes

Well, actually the days are getting a little mixed up but here are some more scenes from around Queenstown. This is the TSS Earnslaw. It was was built in 1912 in Dunedin and was dismantled and shipped by rail to Queenstown where it has worked on Lake Wakatipu for the last 100 years. It has a coal fired steam boiler for propulsion.

It served the small farming communities around the lake for many years but today it is used for tourist excursions.

Here they are loading coal into the ship. I imagine there are people below decks shoveling coal just like the old days.

Margot and I did not take a cruise.

This guy and his co-pilot were paddling around the harbor.

It is amazing how clear the water is in Lake Wakatipu. New Zealand takes environmental issues pretty seriously. In this part of the country there seems to be no industry - only farming and tourism.

Margot liked the picture above and I liked this one so you get two clear water/duck pictures.

This is a statue of William Gilbert Rees. He and his family were the first European settlers in what became Queenstown. They arrived in 1861. A year later when gold was discovered he was paid 10,000 pounds for his property which became Queenstown.

One evening, Margot and I took the cable car up the mountain to have dinner, take pictures and for an organized star gazing outing.

This is a picture of the Earnslaw from the top of the mountain.

This picture is of Queenstown from the cable car on the way up.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset that evening.

This is a long exposure shot of the Remarkable Mountains and Queenstown at night.

No star pictures but it was a clear, moon-less night. You could see 3 galaxies with the naked eye - the Milky Way, Large Magellanic Cloud, and Small Magellanic Cloud. Pretty cool.

This is a another shot from the top of the mountain looking about 90 degrees way from the picture above.

Third day in New Zealand - Queenstown

On our third day we drove from Mt Cook to Queenstown. This is a view of the Remarkable Mountains from the hill in Queenstown.

This shot is taken from the street on which our hotel was located. The trees on the far side of the water are in a city park on the peninsula.

After dinner we we drive on the mountain side in Queenstown to take pictures of the Remarkables as the sun was setting. Here you can see the shadow of the mountains across the lake creeping up the mountains.

This shot is a few minutes later. Notice how the color is becoming more red.

The lake is called Lake Wakatipu.

Here the sun has set completely and the lights are coming on in the town below the mountains.

This is a shot of downtown Queenstown after dark about 180 degrees away from the mountain pictures above.

The first European came to Queenstown in 1853. There was a gold rush in 1862 that got the city started.

This is one of the main streets - actually a pedestrian mall now - in Queenstown.  Queenstown is all about tourism. There is a huge infrastructure of restaurants, hotels, campgrounds, etc. Amazingly the traffic is not bad. There is a pretty efficient bus service and it is all pretty compact so it is easy to walk.

This guy was standing on the dock at the waterfront.

Click to enlarge.

Queenstown bills itself as the adventure or adrenalin capital of New Zealand. Bungy jumping was invented here and there are all sorts of activities. Here some sky divers are landing in the park in the center of town. Skiing is very popular in the winter.

This a shot of the harbor at Queenstown and the park across the way. Not a lot of boating but there are some excursion ships and fishing and water taxi charters.

Here is a shot of Margot across the street from the dentist office where I had to have my crown re-cemented on our second day there.