Day 3 - Dart River Jetboat

Turning Finals for Glenorchy

Day 3 was a fun day with the sole purpose of flying to the top of Lake Wakatipu to an airfield called Glenorchy which services the Dart River, to spend the afternoon on a jet boat.  Our guide for the next few days was Megan George, an air traffic controller at Queenstown, an instructor and commercial pilot who had flown regularly into Milford Sound.  We learnt quickly that she was an expert mountain flyer and knew the geography better than most of us in the UK know our local area. 

Sharp Left

A mid-morning start, our flight took us out over Roses Saddle, Lake Luna and out into Lake Wakatipu passing through the edge of Queenstown’s airspace.  Tracking around the lake we flew up to the northern tip of Wakatipu to Glenorchy, again an airfield on the right hand side of the lake with a small cliff to the southerly runway, chosen because of the prevailing winds that had bought the warmth of the last few days down several degrees.  It was a chilly, blowy day.  

And right - minding the rocks

A minibus picked us up at the airfield and we had a brief lunch before we were driven some 40 minutes up the Dart River.  The first part of the trip was a 20 minute walk through the forest, to the shore of the river where we were to pick up the boats.  The walk paused frequently for our river Dart Jetboat guide to talk us through the ecological and environmental impact of man’s intervention with the area of NZ’s history, from the problems arising from the introduction of non-native mammals (rabbit, deer, tar goat), and also trees such as the Douglas Fir which have pushed out native species such as the incorrectly named beech varieties, which bear no resemblance to their namesakes north of the equator.  This kind of environmental message had been part of other activities which we had taken part in such as the Ziptrek visit in Queenstown.  The lasting impression was that New Zealanders care deeply about the country in which they live.

We joined the jetboats at Chinaman’s Bluff, some 40km north of Glenorchy and were kitted up with waterproofs and life jackets.  It was a cold day so the heated handrails on the boats were welcome.  The river was shallow and we were all unsure how we would make progress until we learnt that the boats could travel at up to 35-40kts and had a draft of only 4 inches, so were able to traverse much of the end of summer levels of the river.  It was an exhilarating 80 minutes, travelling first up-river to some of the higher reaches of the Dart then back down to top of Lake Wakatipu.   Several stops provided further insight into the river and the environment making a memorable afternoon.

The trip back to GHS included a fuel stop over at Wanaka and flight back through the Queenstown airspace for one of Jo’s memorable dinners.