Fast River Canyons and Remarkable Peaks- But No Hobbits

Blessed with another stunning day, we managed an early start and headed out of town a few miles to the Shotover River where we planned to take a jet boat ride through the river’s spectacular canyons. This being Queenstown, we would do so at high speed in a specially designed jet boat powered by twin V6 Buick engines, each cranking 200+ horses, and propelling 800 litres of water a second.

These photos don't even begin to do it justice....

For 25 minutes, our jet boat skimmed across the water, swerving around canyons at high speed and frequently avoiding massive boulders by only a matter of inches (check out the video… there is NO zoom used at all). The 360 degree turns throw us around the boat like rag dolls, but left us smiling every time.

Exhilarated, we dried off and headed to the outskirts of Queenstown where we planned a late breakfast overlooking the town in Deer Park.

Hey, it's not called Deer Park for nothing....

The fact that several Lord of the Rings scenes were filmed here did not escape us, and we did spend an hour or so admiring the dramatic backdrop of the Remarkables.

The animals here are quite used to visitors – in fact you are encouraged to feed them by hand, so we spent a few minutes with some baby goats which were actually too young to be interested in the supplied animal feed. Far more assertive were the deer, who would have knocked the can out of my hand given the opportunity!

It was a perfectly appropriate way to wrap up our time in Queenstown, and it was with some reluctance that we headed out of town, although - as it turned out - we wouldn't make it too far before our next stop ....