Day 6 – Saturday 4 April

A very early start & breakfast in the motel dining room at 6.30am so that we could have plenty of time to drive to Glenorchy for today’s adventure. We stepped outside into dark & rain. The first part of our trip, the drive was slow & subdued, with daylight softening the sky as we got closer to Glenorchy. Jet boating & canoeing is the agenda today. We gathered at the Dart River Jetboat building in Glenorchy for a safety briefing & then to be kitted out in the wetsuits & safety gear. Full length wetsuits, boots, under fleeces (it was so cold they gave us 2 to wear), spray jacket, life jacket & beanie. We looked a treat.

We headed off onto Lake Wakatipu in drizzling rain, did a few high speed spins for a thrill then up the Dart River at full throttle, twisting & turning in the very shallow water as we snaked up the river. The scenery ahead was amazing, the massive peaks of Mt Earnslaw & Mt Aspiring were littered with snow as we made our way up river, past Paradise & into the Mt Aspiring National Park, a World Heritage Listed Area. Each bend of the Dart River showed a different amazing view, made even more special with the changes in the light, curtains of rain & the clouds with the sun at times filtering through & creating amazing rainbows. The river was up about 30cm above normal & flowing fast because of the rain & small waterfalls were coursing down the mountains. At the end of the Jetboat river limit we stopped next to a beautiful waterfall, the boat driver told us that yesterday the waterfall was dry. We turned & headed back downstream, again at full throttle, our driver was very good at reading the river & plotting our course through the many different paths on offer.

We stopped at a small side creek where our inflatable canoes were being pumped up & we were split into small groups with a leader, another safety briefing before Tereza & I headed off in our canoe into the babbling current for the exciting ride downstream. Did I mention the scenery, it never ceases to amaze. It seemed only moments & we were kilometres downstream & paddling into another side stream. We walked our canoes up the stream before re-assembling & paddling in groups into an extraordinary small rock canyon with narrow walls carved out by centuries of water. The beech trees hung overhead, laden with thick moss on every surface it could establish a grip on. The view absolutely mind boggling with the beauty. It was a struggle paddling up into the canyon against the fast current, going back down was very easy & we stopped for lunch at the Rock Burn Hut, a shelter used by walkers on the Rock Burn Track & also the Dart River jetboats, complete with picnic tables & resident hungry birds looking for an easy meal. Lots of bumblebees hassling the ladies & lots of sandflies hassling everyone. (People complain about flies in Australia, that’s because they haven’t experienced the NZ sand flies).

Lunch was very good, fresh bread, cheeses, salads, meats followed by fruit & cakes & no-one went hungry. Lunch also gave us a good opportunity to chat to our fellow adventurers & the guides. The scenery was amazing at this stop, looking back up at the snow on the mountains, shrouded in mist, scenes straight out of “Lord of the Rings” with these 2,800m peaks brooding over us. Back into the canoes for the next part of the journey downriver, only one person managed to fall out of a canoe & go for a swim. Again amazing scenery everywhere you looked. Too soon we had to pull in, deflate & pack the canoes, board the bus & drive back to Glenorchy through Paradise. We did see a large flock of Paradise Ducks feeding in a paddock next to the road on the way back. The bus was a high clearance 4 wheel drive & very bouncy, a few bumps threw us right out of our seats. It was very pleasant to change out of our now very “wet” suits & boots, the dry clothes felt very good.

All too soon on the road back to Queenstown & another great view of Lake Wakatipu. What a great adventure!!!!

The photos don’t do justice to the real beauty.