Queenstown Shotover Jet turns 60: From river ferry to iwi-led tourism icon
Photo:
Supplied / Shotover Jet
One of New Zealand's best-known adventure rides is celebrating 60 years in business after evolving from a simple five-person riverboat into an iconic thrill-seekers' attraction.
Ngāi Tahu Tourism said the milestone was about much more than commercial success; it was a moment of pride for mana whenua who have taken the wheel.
Shotover Jet business manager Donald Boyer said Shotover Jet rose from humble origins.
Herm Palmer (right), who was an early owner and operator of Shotover Jet, 1966.
Photo:
Supplied / Shotover Jet
"It pretty much did start with a couple of blokes and a really small wooden boat that seated about four to five passengers.
"It was a transport service that came from Queenstown across the lake and up the Shotover to Arthurs Point purely for transport. The boat did about 30 km per hour, so quite sedate.
"Through the 70s and 80s, it morphed into the thrill-based experience that it is."
More than 4.6 million people have since taken a ride on the Shotover Jet, which has garnered national attention,
won tourism awards
and hosted prime ministers and royals.
Ngāi Tahu Tourism general manager Jolanda Cave said a handshake deal with Ngāi Tahu in 1999 laid the foundations for the iwi's entire tourism arm, which now includes eight other ventures around Te Waipounamu.
Ngāi Tahu Tourism General Manager Jolanda Cave, Shotover Jet Business Manager Donald Boyer and Kāi Tahu ki Tuawhenua Kāhui representative Paulette Tamati-Elliffe.
Photo:
Katie Todd / RNZ
"The Shotover Jet is ultimately the jewel in the crown for Ngāi Tahu Tourism. It was the first tourism venture that we purchased, and it is ultimately what started the growth of what Ngāi Tahu Tourism is today," she said.
Cave was among those who gathered on the riverbank on Friday morning to mark six decades of the Shotover Jet.
The company planned to give free rides on Saturday and was releasing a documentary about its history.
The money iwi used to buy into Shotover Jet came from
a Treaty settlement
involving $170m in Crown redress in the 1990s.
Cave said Ngāi Tahu Tourism secured full ownership by 2004 and became one of the country's biggest tourism operators.
Ross Melhop, one of the two brothers who founded Shotover Jet Services in 1965.
Photo:
Supplied / Shotover Jet
"It's really enabled us to use the international manuhiri, the domestic manuhiri and use our voice so we're able to tell our stories. We're able to look after the whenua that we operate in and we're able to lead how we feel tourism should be in the future," she said.
The Shotover River or Kimiākau Awa has been part of Ngāi Tahu's whakapapa for generations.
Paulette Tamati-Elliffe, a member of Kāi Tahu ki Tuawhenua Kāhui, which represented the seven Papatipu Rūnanga of the area, said the waters were used to transport supplies and gather food, plants and pounamu.
"This place was very important to us. It was a huge part of our tribal, our traditional tribal economy," she said.
To maintain that connection and to be able to provide those benefits, tangible and intangible, for not only this generation but future generations to come, is just so important."
Shotover Jet plans to give away free rides on Saturday, and it will be releasing a documentary about its story.
Photo:
Katie Todd / RNZ
Kimiākau meant to search for the shoreline or sea, Tamati-Elliffe said.
"The sandy, golden beaches that we enjoy on the coast of Dunedin come from these rocks and from this river, so that connection that our people have maintained for generations, from the mountains to the sea.
"It just makes sense, that name, Kimiakau."
Tamati-Elliffe said iwi hoped to see more whanau engaged in the business in future.
"We want to strengthen and enhance what's already a great experience for manuhiri, and we believe we're on that trajectory."
Boyer said
sustainability was a big focus
for the Shotover Jet as the company embarked on the next decade.
"Over the last few years, we've started transitioning to engines that burn about 30 percent less fuel than the previous ones," he said.
That's all part of our journey towards being at a point where we burn no fossil fuels, whether that's
electric
or hydrogen.
"It's just an incredible achievement for a business in New Zealand to get to 60 years, and I'm just super proud to be leading the business and into this next decade."
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Ross Melhop, one of the two brothers who started the Shotover Jet business back in 1965. Originally revealed back in 2022, a prototype of the carbon-free jet made a splash around Lake Wakatipu before it was tested on the Shotover River. Boyer explained that while the data gained from the test was very useful, they learned the weight limit is a key challenge in making the boats electric. He said fixing that issue relies on new technologies being created. 'It's only a case of holding on for a few years and then the technology will be where we need it to be. While we wait for that, there's still quite a lot of mahi going on in the background with design and research of electric motors and controllers. 'One of the big changes we've had since I've been managing this business is moving to a V8 engine that uses around 30% less fuel than the previous model.' 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The group reported total revenue across its seven business units of $347.3m for the 2023-24 financial year, down from $372.8m the year prior. Prince William and Kate rode the Shotover Jet in Queenstown during their royal tour in 2014. Photo / Supplied The Covid-19 pandemic had a substantial impact on the business, as with many others in the Queenstown region. At the time, 309 jobs were cut across Ngāi Tahu Tourism's operations. Thankfully, green shoots are now appearing, Cave believes. 'I think for Shotover absolutely, they've been really fortunate that Queenstown as a destination has returned a lot quicker than the rest of Aotearoa, and it's just had numbers slightly above a pre-Covid environment. 'But with that we also need to be really mindful of our licence to operate, because in those years in a post-Covid environment it was our local domestic market that kept our doors open and really looked after us.' 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