White water river rafting, Queenstown NZ

An adventure!
We arrive in Queenstown to rain. They are just coming into their spring, which is also their rainy season. There are some things we want to do here: jet boat, river rafting and the gondola and luge. We plan our days hoping to avoid the rain.
Queenstown reminds me very much of Whistler, BC, being very touristy town set in the mountains with lots of adventure activities, shops and restraints. We’ve decided we will stay four nights so we will have time for our activities. I found a fantastic hostel, Southern Laughing, to stay at (expensive, but good value compared to where we have been staying). Jeff and I spend one morning setting up our schedule while the kids worked on school. That afternoon we headed up the Gondola for a nice view of Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu and the surrounding mountains. It’s absolutely gorgeous. On top of the “mountain”, they have set up a luge course. You sit on a flat, four wheeled sled with levers that help you control your speed. The four of us all went together and it was great fun with lots of speed and twists and turns. We had so much fun, we let the kids go two more times.
Up early the next day to do a “funyak” adventure. We began with a scenic bus ride out to Glenorchy, about 45 minutes out of Queenstown. We suited up in wet suits, got on a jet boat, crossed the lake and then headed up the Dart river. A jet boat skims the top 4 inches of water at a very high rate of speed. Tim liked it when the driver would do a 360 before he brought the boat to a stop. It was great fun. The boat dropped us off and we canoed back down the river in inflatable canoes. This was a full day trip and was very enjoyable as the day was sunny and warm.
Our next and final adventure in Queenstown was white water rafting on the Shotover River. Since it had been raining quite a lot the few days before, the river was running fairly high and wild (Class 4). Okay, I can do this. We had an American guide named Jeff, 3 Australians (Adam, Adam and Beth) and the four of us in our raft. We were the lead boat and it made for a beautiful trip down the river. We also had the job of rescue if need be, so after each rapid, we pulled off to the side of the river and watched the other boats come through the rapids. As it was a warm day, the guide gave us the opportunity to jump into the river. Jeff, Tim, Adam and I got in. It was very refreshing (cold), but I was happy to get back in the raft. We managed to get through all the rapids without a hitch and without flipping the raft (can’t say the same for all the other rafts). I completed the trip and enjoyed it immensely. Thanks Doug for taking me on the Wenatchee River all those years ago. It made all the difference for me. Both Jeff and I were proud of the kids handling a class 4 river for their first river raft trip. Especially Tim who got into the river twice!!
Queenstown was great fun and we hated to leave, but on to the next adventure (which I already told you about – our Lake Waikaremoana 4 day trek).

Karen