NZ JetBoats & Brit Royals??!!

Did you see the coverage today about what Prince William and Kate had for their activities in and around Queenstown? YES, their adventure included an exciting JetBoat ride. Their "adventure" was done at the Shotover River near Queenstown on the NZ South Island. Fun!! Below are some pictures from the UK Daily Mail on their activities. Plus below, is one of my pictures from near Queenstown of this river and added ones from our JetBoat excitement on the scenic river near Christchurch. The JetBoat trip was one of the super highlights during our trip. As Nike advertises . . . "Just Do It!".

From this below link to the Daily Mail, you can see many more pictures of Kate and William doing the JetBoat ride, visiting a nearby winery, etc. During our Queenstown overnight ship tour/trip, we also visited a winery (not the same one done by the Royals). Plus, many other highlights in this wonderful part of NZ. This great coverage and the pictures brings back nice New Zealand memories. See more about the Royals visit at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2603524/Kate-crushes-pregnancy-rumours-rides-jet-boat-takes-wine-tasting.html

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Just back from doing a 14-day Celebrity Solstice, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure on this ship and getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for much more information and lots of wonderful pictures on these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 52,145 views for this fun posting.

From the Daily Mail in London, here are a couple of their pictures for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge enjoying the JetBoat ride on the Shotover River near Queenstown.:

While we were traveling from Arrowtown to Queenstown during our Celebrity Solstice two-day, overnight, we crossed the bridge shown above and looked down below to the same Shotover River that the future King and his wife traveled. You can see in my picture that the river was very high and at the right is one of their red JetBoats parked nearby. This day, the river was too full or high to do such JetBoat rides. Glad we got our JetBoat experience done after doing the Tranz Alpine rail trip to the famed mountains on the South Island.:

Here are some added views from my pictures that I did not post earlier showing our fun and excitement when we did our Jet Boat ride nearby to Christchurch. Seem like great fun? It was!! Notice how close our boat was traveling nearby to the solid and strait-up stone walls/cliffs next to and overlooking this scenic river.:

Here are more on details on the JetBoat ride we did near Christchurch and the NZ Southern Alps. In December, I discussed with my wife the option of the Tranz Alpine Jetboat Tour KQ12 through our Celebrity Solstice ship at Akaroa, New Zealand. I got her OK by keeping semi-secret the cost and her not worrying too much about doing a JetBoat ride. The rail part is considered to be one of the great train journeys in the world, taking you through the heart of the mountains in comfort and style. Then, it would be topped off by a thrilling jet-boat ride to get your heart pumping. That high-speed "rocket boat" goes down the Waimakiriri River. We had a great buffet lunch next to the river before doing the boat ride.

In Māori, Waimakariri has several meanings, one of which is "river of cold rushing water". The river rises on the eastern flanks of the Southern Alps, eight kilometres southwest of Arthur's Pass. As the river approaches the Canterbury Plains, it passes through a belt of mountains, and is forced into a narrow canyon (the Waimakariri Gorge), before reverting to its braided form for its passage across the plains. It finally enters the Pacific north of Christchurch. From

http://www.jetthrills.com

http://www.alpinejet.co.nz

there is more info on these jet boats, the area, visuals, etc. They note in the promotion info: "skim the shallows, spin in your own length, feel the power of our Hamilton Jets"!! True?? Absolutely and more!!

The night before this adventure, my wife and Susan from our Central Ohio group, were considering backing out of this portion of the trip and settling for a more tame "sheep ranch" stop. They were worried that this JetBoat might be too "intense". Yes, that's the point for doing this adventure. What was the right decision? See all of the photo proof below.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 140,307 views. Nice to be hitting this high of a level for viewership. Appreciate the interest!!

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

Here is a small sampling of just five more of my pictures from the about 150 visuals that I shot while doing the JetBoat adventure at this river location near Christchurch. This picture shows just one example of the THRILLS during these fast, roaring shots up and down this narrow and scenic section of this river. I was fortunately seated right behind our excellent driver, Greg Peacock. I didn't get very wet, but those on the right side got more of the "showers". No extra charge. But, nobody got too wet. It was all part of the fun.:

At a couple points during our about 45-minute trip on the river, Greg stopped at a scenic location in this river/gorge to give us more background on these boats, experiences in doing this work since 1998 for him, etc. Greg's sense of humor was wonderful!! These Hamilton Jet Boats were developed around 1960, including work done at this site to perfect the design and test the models/designs. Notice the great background/dramatic areas that we were "sailing" up and down?:

When pilot Greg put his hand up, as shown here, he was doing a twirling, rotating sign to warn us. It's 360 degree time and the need for us to be bracing as he would be doing a full-circle, high-speed spin in the middle of the river. WOW!! Times ten. Maybe even better. These were so fast and such fun!!:

There were three boats from our ship group doing this trip and here is a picture that I got of another JetBoat during our fast ride on the river doing its adventure. A picture is worth a thousand words in summarizing how fast these boats travel and the fun being had by those doing this exciting trip.:

Now finally, here is a picture that my wife loved. Notice her hands and those of others in our row super tightly gripping the safety bar? That says so much about the speed and thrills while roaring up and down this amazing stretch of scenic river. I showed my wife this picture (and several others like this one of her where the wind was blowing her hair in the opposite direction). She liked this picture so much, that she said to put this one in her obituary (not that this need is upcoming anytime soon). It showed her having fun and she said this ride was the most fun of the whole cruise/trip. We've had lots of great moments on this trip, but one was a unique and special ride in a location that is spectacularly world-class. And, perfect weather with good friends adds to the great joy!!: