- Ean
- First Reviewer
- 4 out of 5
- Avg. Member Rating
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4
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The Best White Water Rafting in Town
- February 24, 2009
- Rated 5 of 5 by
lo7la from Elmhurst, Illinois
You have a choice of two rivers to raft down near Queenstown. The tamer Kawarau River or the wilder Shotover River. The Kawarau is aimed at first time rafters or those who might be a bit unsure about the whole rafting experience. The river grade for the rapids is a 2-3. The shotover boasts rapids at grades 4-5. They both cost the same at $169 per person for a half a day (about 4.5hrs).
A mini bus takes you out to the Shotover river from the downtown Queenstown business location. You can opt to meet them at the Shotover location if you have your own transport. This was a short 5min ride.
At the Shotover building you are given a short brief on what to expect though-out the day and then given a wetsuit, booties, helmet, waterproof jacket and lifejacket.
You are then loaded onto one of two mini buses that carry you up round the back of the hill down towards Skippers Canyon. Here they take you along the grade 2 "Highway" and a bit of history to do with the gold mining. This trip is about 45 minutes.
Once at the start one of the guides goes through more safety issues and you are split into groups of 6-7.
You pose for a picture before you get in your raft and while you are paddling away. These are then packaged and sold back at the Queentown location.
Your guide will over a few basic instructions and most of the rapids are navagated easily. Depending on how many people are signed up for the day you could be in one of seven or so other rafts.
Safety is a high priority and the guides are prepared.
At the end of the rafting you help load the rafts onto traylers, ready to be transported back to the start.
One very exciting experience not to be forgotten.
Trips run twice a day in summer, except for Christmas. Heli-rafting only in winter. No children under 13 and everyone should be swimmer confident.
From journal The Adventure Queen
Editor Pick
White Water Rafting
- April 9, 2006
- Rated 4 of 5 by
stomps from Houston, Texas
I did this rafting trip on my second day in Queenstown, as part of a combo with the Shotover Jet. This was the second part of the combo, so after we got off the Jetboat and they attempted to sell us all sorts of pictures and memorabilia, we walked over to the rafting area and were handed wetsuits, booties, life jackets, and everything else we needed for rafting. Once we all managed to change and put our stuff into the buckets provided (to be placed on a wall of shelves--hence, you don't want to take anything you don't need, like your passport, extra money, etc, although they assured us everything would be there when we got back).
Once we were all wet-suited up, they gave us a bit of a talk and then herded us onto rickety buses pulling lots of rafts. This part had to be unanimously agreed upon as the scariest part of the trip--the drive to the Shotover. We were all a bit worried when they turned on a dirt road that said "NO BUSES OR TRAILERS"... and we were on a bus, with a trailer. It was the tiniest road I have ever been on in such a large vehicle, and there was a huge drop just to the side of the road that we all just pretended to not see. That is, until the bus driver popped one of the wheels off the edge because that was the only way to get the rafts around a corner.
When we finally made it to the river, we were all ready to take on anything, because it meant we didn't have to take the bus back to Queenstown. We were given an extensive talk about rafting safety, and what to do if we got dumped out, etc. I felt very prepared once I was actually on the raft, and probably would have done so even if I hadn't been rafting before. They were very thorough.
The actual raft ride was pretty fun, since our guide was hilarious and very interesting, and the rescue guy in the kayak gave us someone to splash with lots of water. There were some long stretches where we were floating down the river, but there were a few big rapids. We ended up at the tail end after a couple of the rapids because our guide was one that had to wait to rescue people..and we ended up rescuing one girl, who had fallen out of her raft because the guide fell out(!) and they didn't know what to do going down the rapid. No one got hurt more than being a bit bruised though.
At one point, we got to see people on the Canyon Swing jumping over us, which was pretty funny.
Overall, I thought it was an enjoyable trip. While not for the most hardcore rafters, since there were many stretches without huge rapids, it was still exciting. It was, however a bit pricey, but that's to be expected in Queenstown.
From journal Adventures in Queenstown
Whitewater Rafting @ Queenstown Rafting
- May 6, 2004
- Rated 4 of 5 by
cworld26 from Chicago, Illinois
This was SO fun, minus the slightly scary ride on the edge of a cliff in a van to get to the start of the trip! The guides were GREAT and so much fun! Definitely go with this company if you're up for some great Class IV and up rapids! It was tons of fun.
From journal Running around being wild in New Zealand
White Water Rafting
- March 4, 2003
- Rated 4 of 5 by
Ean from Singapore, Singapore
I had a fantastic time white water rafting here in Queentown at the Shotover River. The rafting guide from Queentown rafting was good (his name is Jack) and I would certainly recommend him if anyone is a first timer doing this rafting.
From journal New Zealand