There are several competing Jet Boat companies in Queenstown, but Lord of the Rings fans will want to go with Skippers. $159NZ isn't the cheapest, but this includes a very scenic, and scary, 4WD bus tour of Skippers Canyon and Shotover river where you'll see some LOTR shooting locations for Mordor and the part where Arwen uses river magic to kill the ring wraiths. If you're really scared of heights, you might want to skip this, no pun intended. Skippers Canyon Road is a narrow gravel road that goes alongside dangerously steep cliffs...thank goodness for our expert driver!. But the entire one hour drive there and back is very scenic with stops for gorgeous photo opportunities of Mordor. The jet boat ride itself is thrilling fun, be prepared to get wet! Midway through you'll see the location where Arwen fought off the ring wraiths. There is an opportunity to use the toilet after the boat ride, but I'd highly recommend going wee wee before you hop on the bus. read more

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This was a great jet boat tour. We picked it to get the tour and history with the jet boating, and it didn't disappoint. They stopped a few times for pictures, the first time at a beautiful overlook. They told us lots of lord of the rings trivia if that's your thing, and there are lots of lots of the rings backdrops along the way. The drive took maybe an hour in, less time out. The jet boat time is about 25 minutes, faster down than up. The driver is very good but the ride wasn't as white knuckly as I expected. We stopped by a house with bathrooms afterwards. We'd paid for a longer tour with museum stop and gold panning but it was a cold drizzly day so they nicely offered us the chance to switch to the shorter tour, which we did. They take a typical amusement park photo at the beginning. They pick up the the station bus stop on camp street, which is labeled as such, and which is a tourism store, not a city bus stop or anything like that. It's at the end of camp street closer to arrowtown. We were able to book on very short notice, but it was low season. read more

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Awesome jet boat excursion.. It takes about an hour to get to the river where the jet boat is but the drive there is totally worth it. The company picks you up and you drive thru Skippers Canyon Road (look it up) and the drive along is GNARLEY AF but provides you with some of the most beautiful scenery. Our driver made enough stops along the way for us take plenty pictures and told us some history about how this road was created. When you get to the landing area where you board the jet boat extra gear is provided. The jet boat ride was fun and and lasted about 30-40 minutes with stops along away for photos. More history about the river and looks at old bungee jump stations. It was a really great trip! And I highly recommend the Skippers Canyon Jet Company. read more

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Our Skippers Canyon Jet excursion was nothing short of incredible! The drive out to the river was breathtaking. Our bus driver, Willie, was informative, hilarious, and kind enough to stop for a stunning photo op of the Remarks. The jet boat experience was once-in-a-lifetime! Our very skilled boat driver gave us quite the thrilling ride up and down the river and along the canyon walls. It was an exciting and beautiful trip that we will never forget! read more

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We went on a tour those morning- we had Rusty as our bus driver, and Ben as our boat driver. Holy crap! Firstly, It was a hairy drive- but SO beautiful. Rusty had a dry sense of humor! So funny!! We stopped along the way for photo ops, and soaked in the beauty around us! When we showed up for the boat ride, we were SO exited. Sat in the front seat, and enjoyed Bens quiet yet sarcastic personality. Pretended like he just started driving boats and didn't really know what he was doing. But OMG he was an insanely amazing driver! SO much fun, and so talented. Would recommend this company and Ben as your driver to anyone. Hope we can do this again. So worth the money and time. Ben deserves a fat raise for his talent and skill. Wow! So much fun!!!!! -Brooke Ryder and Matt Shipard -CALIFORNIA&AUSTRALIA read more

Excellent activity. The drive down to the docks was breath taking. Sooooo close to the edge of cliffs. Learned a little history about gold mining in the area and how Queenstown came about. The speed boats were an adrenaline rush. Fast and close to the mountains. On the tour you get to see where some of the lord of the ring movie was "twin towers" filmed. Bring a GoPro verse a camera. read more

This tour was fantastic! I read in many places that they are the best of them all - I couldn't tell since I only did Canyon, but ai can tell you that this is over the sale river as Shotover Jet but higher up stream. The drive is about 1h from town with a couple of scenic stops, the boat ride itself is about 20-25 minutes. If you have a Go Pro try and bring a large and sturdy selfie stick as you may want to shoot over the heads in front of you if you're not upfront and the wind can be pretty rough at 80 km/h on the way back going down river. read more