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Queenstown

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Go Jetboating and Whitewater Rafting in Queenstown
Jetboating on the Shotover River

Skilled jetboat drivers on the Shotover River zip around boulders and skim past sheer rock walls in only inches of water

Photo: Shotover Jet, courtesy Tourism New Zealand

Queenstown adventures include jetboating and whitewater rafting.

Fancy a 360° turn on water at high speed within a diameter just a little over the length of your boat?

Now you can, in a jetboat. In fact you can go any which way in a jetboat — and at dizzying speeds — on deep and shallow water and on river rapids.

Jetboating has your craft propelled by a jet of water at the craft's stern, and the boat is steered by changing the direction of this jetstream. Without an underwater propeller to get snagged, the jetboat can thus manage shallows and whitewater.

The Shotover and Kawarau Rivers near Queenstown are noted for jetboating and to a smaller extent the Dart which is northwest of town.

Rafting and river sledging

Jetboat trips start from Queenstown, either directly on the jetboat or by bus to the river of choice.

Both the Shotover and Kawarau Rivers are also watercourses for whitewater rafting.

If you want to go river sledging or boogeyboarding, you can do that, too. Use a polystyrene sled or modified boogey board, flippers, wetsuit and helmet and you're ready for this relatively new Queenstown sport.

Get detailed information in town on your preferred watersport, check out the cost, book, and go.

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