New Year, New Adventure

Queenstown, New Zealand is known for many cool activities. The Fjordlands are only a short distance away, with beautiful scenery all around. There are so many bungee jump and giant swing locations that it’s hard to drive outside of the city without seeing one. Canyoning is also popular here, with some claiming that it originated in this area. We did all of those activities (sans bungee jumping) during our time there, but my favorite was going jet boating.

Before I continue, I’ll just explain jet boating for those who don’t know what it is. Basically, you are in a boat that is powered by underwater jets. This allows the boat to go incredibly fast, and have high control of it; a necessity when sometimes you are barely more than a foot away from solid canyon walls. The bottom is also quite flat, allowing the boat to do rapid 360 degree turns.

Jet boating is not unique to Queenstown, or even to the South Island, but it is probably this area that is most well known for it. I knew for a decent length of time that we were going to do it, but was unaware when, so it caught me by surprise when it was announced we were going on my birthday. I was already very excited to do it, and learning we were doing it on my bday was the cherry on top. I wanted to sit up front, which was super fun because I could see everything. However, a downside was that quite a bit of water was splashed on me, although not as much as Dad who was closer to the side.

Zooming around in the jet boat was easily just as cool-if not more so-than I had imagined. After leaving the dock, we shot a short distance up river, before turning and zooming past the dock. I think we must have done at least 5 full spins, some of them perilously close to the canyon walls. The only thing I did not like about the experience, out of the numerous things I did absolutely love, was that the flat bottom of the boat caused us to bounce quite roughly on any rapids. I loved jet boating so much, I think I would have been perfectly happy with that as the single thing I got to do while in Queenstown. However, mom and dad got me possibly an even more awesome experience for my birthday (which I will write my next blogpost about) SHARK DIVING!!!