Quote: 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 journals Adventures in Queenstown