Jet Boat Rides/Australia-New Zealand

[rockgarden]

All past passengers - have any of you gone on a jet boat ride, either in Australia or New Zealand. If so, where?

Any information you have will be most welcome.

Thanks.

[lostdart58]

When travelling through NZ I did a jet boat ride in Queenstown. Boat seated about 12 passangers. The ride took us about 5 miles or so up stream on a river. The water at some points was only 12 inches deep. Gorgeous scenery!! FAST ride...........fun!!

[GottoCruise]

We didn't have time on the Queenstown Overland - but managed to do a Jet Boat Ride in Christchurch - we booked it ourselves on the internet ---it was great fun!

[bronnie]

Writing from NZ.

Queenstown would probably be the most well known place to go tourist jet boating. There are also companies that take commercial rides on the Rakaia River about 50km south of Christchurch. I think others go on the Waimakariri River north of Christchurch. Other companies have rides near Hamner Springs - very scenic area a couple of hours north of Christchurch.

I am not sure where you can go in the North Island but there are jet boating excursions - probably available on the Wanganui River & on the Waikato River.

Have fun.

[bronnie]

Bronnie here again. If you do a Google search for "jet Boating NZ" you will find some good information. The following sites are some to look at

http://www.shotoverjet.com http://www.hukajet.co.nz http://www.twinriversjet.co.nz and http://www.lakelandadventures.com

[rockgarden]

Thankyou all. Bronnie, thanks for your input. I expect Christchurch will be the place so am researching the sites you noted.

Rosemary

[bronnie]

Do a google search for "jet boating christchurch".

There is an article Waimak Gorge Jet Boating. Also others mentioning Hanmer Springs. May be others for the Rakaia Gorge - that is quite a spectacular area, near Christchurch - out from Methven. Some of the Lord of the Rings scenery was in the Rakaia Gorge.

Bronwyn

[rockgarden]

Bronwyn (you must be Welsh)

The only problem I can foresee is the fact that we dock at 8 a.m. and leave at six. One of the sites had a three-hour trip - 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Wouldn't or couldn't make the first (I'm thinking) and leaving at 1:30 might be cutting it too close to our boarding time which would be around 5:30.

So, have more research to do. I wonder if there are jet boat ride kiosks at the dock. Other than that, Princess did have a jet boat ride last year and if we did that we would be certain to get back on board.

In the meantime, am still checking.

thanks again

Rosemary

[bronnie]

Rosemary

What cruise are you going on? Is it Sapphire Princess. We sailed on the Inaugural Sailing of Sapphire in June from Seattle to Allaska| Great ship. The cruise ships to Christchurch dock at Lyttleton which is several miles away from the centre of Christchurch. Lyttleton is only a small port town, so I don't know if tour operators set up stalls at the dock.

I looked on the Sapphire/ Christchurch shore excursions & there is one to the Hamner region that includes a jet boat ride. No prices given. Some of the prices for Rakaia gorge tours looked very expensive on those websites.

In Dunedin - the Taieri Gorge train is supposed to be a great trip. It is diesel train, not steam.

[bronnie]

Rosemary

I emailed Waimak Alpine Jets & got the following reply. Their email address is springfield_@xtra.co.nz If you want to contact them I am sure they will give you more detail. Or they do have a web page. http://www.waimakalpinejet.co.nz The cost sounds reasonable for a 3-4 hour trip.

 

Hi Bronwyn

We appreciate your interest in Waimak Alpine Jet! Yes, we do arrange tours that meet the cruise ships coming into Lyttleton. We can arrange a transfer service to pick up passengers (min. 2 passengers) from the Lyttleton Information Centre – pick up time will be 8:30 am. The cruise ship passengers can take the free shuttle bus from the wharf to the Lyttleton Information centre (the security on the wharf is strict and they are not happy to let lots of vehicles through all the time – note: if you are booking a bigger group we can arrange the transfer service to pick the group up at the wharf).

 

Please let me know if you have got any further questions and we are looking forward to give your cruise ship passenger contacts the highlight of their visit to Canterbury!

Thank you and kind regards

 

Gritt Maria Raymond

 

Managing director

[rockgarden]

Bronwyn, you are a peach. I just checked the Ports of Call and got your message (Ihad put my question on there first and never got an answer at all)

So, back to the Princess boards and that was really weird because it never came up at all - had to do a search and there it was.

Your information is great. Am printing it out first so that I have the information right in front of me.

In the meantime, thankyou for that piece of information.

Will let you know results.

Rosemary

[alaskabound3]

15 years ago , I did a jet boat at Queensland in New Zealand. It was in june which is their winter. It was fun and exciting. things were less crowded back then so just walked up to the dock and booked with one of the boats. The captain was a sole operator as was many of the operators back then rather than a big company. It was the last boat of the day so the captain's kids got to ride on it as well. The boat did very sharp turns and headed toward trees and verd off at the last moment but I figured that he knew what he was doing since his kids were also on the boat. The jet boat held about 6 passengers which is a good size for good manuverability vs the larger ones.

 

One thing though don't take the boat from the dock that is next to the lake in Queensland. Do the ones that take you up the river on a van so that the boat only travels on the river. The jet boat travels on only a few inches of water and that is part of the excitement. But it is a flat bottom draft so does poorly across a large body of water. We did Ok but rough across to the river but we came back in a rainstorm so it was very rough and bumpy. We all got soak but then I just headed back to my condo room and took a hot bath.

 

Later on I saw some travelers I had met on the extended tour of New Zealand and Australia (SP) and they commented on seing a jet boat on a bumpy ride across the lake and wondered who those people were on the boat? I told them the story.

[GottoCruise]

We had NO problem getting into town (Lyllteton) from the ship dock -we used free bus transportation provided by the town from the dock (you can also take a LONG walk....) and then public transport into Christchurch.... it is nice to look around Christchurch - you will still have plenty of time - we met the jet boat tour at the Center Square right by the visitor center - If I remember correctly we took an afternoon tour so we had time to look around Christchurch in the AM - there was a big "flea Mkt." going on at the Center Square....and you also don't want to miss the Botanical Gardens..... I don't remember the name of the Jet Boat outfit, but I found it on Google....just do your research....