Got enough Adrenaline?

Ahh, the sweet smell of adrenaline in the air.   Welcome to Queenstown, where you could probably do any action-packed activity that was ever invented, and probably many of them were actually invented in Queenstown, like bungy jumping.  As we crossed a river to Queenstown, we passed a group of people white-water sledging which was riding the rapids in the river.  It looked quite fun - see short video here.  Thought we'd add it to the list to do while we're in Queenstown.   We also drove by the Kawarau Bridge, home to the world's first commercial bungy site.  Hmm... Definitely not for Shari but Frank added it to his wish list.  There's tons of other stuff like jetboating, canyoning, skydiving, quad-biking, etc.  Arrgh, there were so many activities to choose from, and so little time, and money!  These activities aren't cheap for sure!  In the end, we decided to do the Shotover Duo combo - a ride on the famous Shotover Jet and a rafting trip down the Shotover River.

Cheese Tasting, Anyone?

White Water Sledging

The Shotover Jet is a popular jetboat to hurtle people through the Shotover Canyon and River. They drive at blazing speeds and do a lot of 360 degree spins that looked quite crazy on the video monitors at the info center.  What was most amazing about the Shotover Jet was the guide's driving skills.  The canyon is extremely narrow, and the guide would race the jet through the canyon at crazy speeds, barely missing the canyon walls by a foot in some places!  The guide would also do 360 spins along the river, once or twice between the narrow canyon walls!   They must go through some kind of intense training course!  The river was quite shallow so at times, we could hear & feel the boat scraping the rocks on the river bottom, also adding to a bumpier ride.  See short video here.

Bunging Jumper at the Kawarau Bridge

Right after the Shotover Jet ride, we hopped into a couple of wetsuits, jumped into a bus, and rode down the Skipper Canyon road to begin our rafting ride.  Upon entering the road, there was a large sign saying that no rental cars are allowed past this point.  We also remembered the rental car agency saying the same thing, but didn't really give it much thought.  As the bus drove down the narrow dirt path insanely carved into the steep mountainside, we started to understand why no rental cars are allowed here.  In a couple parts of the road, the turns were so tight that Frank saw only a few inches between the bus' wheel and the edge the cliff.   The road also had no railing, we just had cliffs on one side of the bus and the steep canyon drop-off on the other.   The view down into the canyon was so scenic. We wished we brought our cameras with us!

Waterfront at Lake Wakatipu

The rafting group was huge, think there were at least 50 people in the group, 6 per raft.   The river was technically a Class III-IV, but the water levels were quite low so the rapids in most places weren't that rough.   However, due to the low water levels it was quite technical with many narrow passages and exposed rocks.  We ended up on the German raft.  Including Frank, 4 of the 6 people on the raft were from Germany!  It was a fun group, everyone was in great spirits, so much that our guide decided to flip the raft - in a safe, shallow part of the river of course.  We also got into water splashing fights with several of the other rafts passing by.  There was only one semi-scary part of the river near the end, where we saw 3 or so rafts before us get stuck in an undertow behind a short drop in a narrow turn.  When our turn came, we were sure we wouldn't get stuck, but we did!  Like the 3 rafts before us, one of the other guides threw a rope to us to help pull us out.  Whew!!!   The last part of our trip was rafting through a 170m long, narrow, dark tunnel, which then spit us out down a short gushing waterfall.  Fun!  Too bad we weren't able to take any pictures on the rafting ride.*   It was a great way to end the day.

One of the Main Drags

*Updated Jan15:  We added some rafting pics (we aren't in the boat) but we passed by the river and saw a different group of rafters coming down the same river.

Shotover Jet Blazing down the River

Rafters Down Shotover Canyon

Exiting the Drop

Rafters approaching the final rapids

The Remarkables Shopping Center

Sunset at Lake Wakatipu