Shotover Jetboat

Another great day of weather here again in Queenstown. The forecast again was no where near the outcome fortunately. For about the last 4 days they've been consistently saying it's rain and snow, but clear skies every day instead.

I've decided I'll skip the paragliding license in Queenstown and head back up to the sunshine capital of Nelson, where the paragliding flight school say conditions are almost always good for training, so I'm going to get back on the Magic bus and cruise back to Christchurch, and catch another bus from there over to Nelson.

Today I'm weighing up if I should go get one of these super cheap chopper flights that are going at the moment ($99 for a snow landing at Remarkables), or go do the Jetboat on the Shotover canyon river for $109. Tough choice, I've done similar rides recently, and opt for the Shotover. It was as expected, some very good and risky stunt boat driving, which leaves zero room for error, and this is truly amazing that every 15min a boat load of about 12 people experience this full throttle ride everyday of the week... and yet if I want to ride a push bike around Wanaka I've got to wear a stack hat - there's just no comparison. As you'll see in the video below (which apparently isn't allowed, although I didn't know this until I saw the sign when I got off the boat.. "no video cameras"), they really do run inches away from the canyon walls (often sideways), and note also the semi submerged rocks which would clearly open this thing up with more ease than a can opener.



Seriously cold temperatures down here. I was out snowkiting the other day, and this was definitely colder than that (mainly windchill factor). A good test for the new jacket (Windstopper variety), but the way you really know it's cold is how it is on the only part you can't fully cover up.. your face.

For reference value, the next video is the official memorabilia one that someone else uploaded.