Queenstown New Zealand – Adventure Capital

It was 3 :30 PM and wee had not been at the Queenstown House for more than 10 minutes , when we had booked a Jetboat trip in Skippers Canyon.   5 minutes later the bus picked us up and off we went to the infamous Skipper Canyon road.   We didn’t know it was infamous until later.   Turns out we had an hour ride down a moderately hair raising dirt road ( one young lady was literally crying from fear),  with up to a 1000 foot drop at times , and the bus hanging over the edge, or at least so it seemed.    This canyon was the place that Thomas Arthur and Harry Redfern discovered gold in 1862, but did not keep their big mouths shut, so it was soon the site of a settlement with major traffic up and down this crazy road.  Along the road there are rose bushes that the miners planted.  Not for beauty, but for the vitamin C (rose hips can be made into tea). 

When we got to the bottom of the canyon, there was a 496 cubic inch V8 jetboat waiting.  We were soon hurtling up the Shotover river, swollen from all the recent rain and dodging rock walls, shooting through narrow gaps and doing 360’s   The trip was punctuated with stops for a quick history lesson.  Meanwhile the boat burns 1 liter of fuel per minute when running at full throttle.  We stopped going upriver at the point where the Fords of Bruinen were shot in the Lord of the Rings and the Black Riders were washed away.  We turned with the current and shot downstream even faster than we came up.  Video coming   Once back we had another wild ride back up the canyon road and came out with fabulous views over Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu.

Just a quick note on our accommodation.  The Queenstown House is billed as a boutique hotel / Bed and Breakfast. I think it works for that.   Louise and Rebekah make you feel immediately welcome.   When we got back from the Jet boat we were just in time for a  wine hour that happens every night.  Guests gather to meet and discuss the days adventures and our hosts help people plan their next day.   Too many things to do and too little time.  The rooms are very nice, we had a suite with separate sitting room, but that was actually an upgrade that we didn’t pay for .   Breakfast is fabulous with yogurt and fruit followed by a pretty extensive menu that is included in the room price.   It is a pretty pricey place, but everything in Queenstown is pricey, so it is probably not out of line.  And the service and friendliness are worth a lot.

We finished up the day with Shrimp dumplings and Beef Rendang at Madame Woo’s new restaurant with Malaysian flair in Queenstown.   The adventure part of New Zealand had begun to heat up.  I went to sleep pondering whether I could really come back from New Zealand and say I had not bungy jumped without hanging my head in shame.