Our jet boat journey began outside the iSite (tourist information) in Wanaka, where our driver from Wanaka River Journeys met us with a van and drove us to the boat launch on the Matukituki River. It’s a beautiful ride on a glacial blue river. Thrilling? That might depend on your group. We were a fairly sedate bunch of five and while we did jet spins no one ended up too drenched.
The boat basically noses into shore and you climb in and out over the bow. An optional add on to our trip was a helicopter ride up to a glacier. We didn’t do it but the other three members or our party did. The helicopter was waiting for them when we go to the end of the jet boat trip.
That’s where the second part of the expedition began: a wilderness walk. That was a bit more of a hike than we were expecting. A lot of ups and downs, climbing over downed trees, and working around trees. We saw a stream and got a peek at a waterfall through the trees. And saw lots of moss.
From the edge of the forest we got a good look up the river toward the mountains and glaciers and back down towards civilization.
As we returned to the boat we ran across a paraglider who had unexpectedly landed near the river. (He was supposed to land in the mountains.) Our boat driver/guide chatted with him, we think to determine that he was okay and didn’t need a ride back to town. He was fine with carrying on so we did too. (He had a raft with him too.)
The Matukituki River is a braided river and the channels constantly change. Much of it is only a few inches deep, which is why you do the trip by jet boat. It was fun skimming around the curves.
On our way back to town we drove by some cows standing in the river. I think they were as surprised to see us as we were to see them. Once back at the launch a taxi van was waiting to take us back to town after our great day on the river.
