A number of companies now run jet-boating activities on various rivers around Queenstown including Kawarau Jet and Goldfields Jet on the Kawarau River but the Shotover Jet was the original and is still considered the most extreme, drawing huge crowds out to its base of operations on the Shotover River. They have a office in the center of town where you can book your trip and where you catch the minibus for the 10 minute ride to the picturesque Shotover River Canyon. There is also a web-site at www.shotoverjet.co.nz for up-to-date information.

Upon arrival at the you are kitted out with a life jacket and an optional raincoat, and loaded into a jet boat along with a group of other unsuspecting victims. The driver who the literature reassures you is "qualified way beyond the minimum requirements" then sees how close he can get the boat to the canyon walls, river debris and other Shotover Jets, while traveling at high speeds, making sure he flings the boat through the requisite number of 360 degree turns before turning around and dumping back on terra firma a knuckle whitening 15 minutes later.

There's a small gift shop where you can pick up the useull T-Shirts, Fleeces, etc as well as the requisite embarassing photo of you in a life jacket, with your eyes-shut, clinging onto the safety bar as the boat performs some dangerous maneuver. You can sign up here for some of the other services the company offers including helicopter flights, white-water rafting on the Shotover and more sedate safari cruise in the jet boats. Finally you can grab a cold drink or an ice-cream, if your stomach is up to it, as you await the mini-bus for the trip back to town.

Kiwi safety standards unnerved me throughout my trip there but nowhere did I feel more unsafe than when I was on that boat, it was a truly exhilerating experience and on the minibus journey back to town I couldn’t help hoping that the driver would throw in a couple of Shotover 360 degree turns.

Injuries: Scratch to face from getting too close to an overhanging branch.