Shotover Jet
Strapped into a scarlet V8 jet boat at the base of the Arthurs Point bridge, you'll blast through schist gorges so narrow you can almost touch both walls at once. This is the ride that put Arthurs Point on the adventure map — and it still delivers after six decades.
New Zealand's Original Canyon Ride
Shotover Jet has been thrilling visitors since 1965, and today nearly five million people have made the pilgrimage to its river base at 3 Arthurs Point Road. It is the only operator permitted to run inside the Shotover River Canyons, giving it an exclusivity that no competitor can match.
The boats are purpose-built twin-engine V8s capable of reaching 85 km/h on as little as 10 cm of water — a physics trick that lets the driver skim over shallows that would beach any ordinary vessel. Expect white-knuckle 360° spins fired without warning, walls rushing past within arm's reach, and a soundtrack of pure engine roar.
Gold Rush Ghosts in the Spray
The Shotover River was once rated the richest gold-bearing river per metre on earth. As the boat charges through the gorge you pass the same schist faces that 1860s prospectors clawed at by hand, and the drama of the landscape is inseparable from that history.
The 25-minute ride ends back at the jetty below the historic Arthurs Point bridge. A courtesy shuttle runs from central Queenstown for those without a car, departing from The Station Building on Shotover Street.
Shotover Jet on video
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