Discovery Blog

Where the Rakaia River cuts through the Southern Alps on its way across the Canterbury Plains, a yellow jetboat gurgles, ready for take off.

Snow fans on a day off from Mt Hutt join tourists from Methven to experience one of the country's premier gorge explorations in a way that's safe and sure to exhilarate.

Jetboats have been running the gorge for more than 20 years, and the thrill of blasting up the milky channels of the classic braided river with Mt Hutt and the Southern Alps surrounding is a unique New Zealand experience.

Jetboat driver Blair Grice says his job is to give the customers the time of their lives, from boat-and-walk loops through rafting, fishing and hunting, to heli-combo filight and sightseeing.

"Pretty much, you name it and we'll make it happen."

 

Mt Hutt is closed once again today. The crew had a controlled avalanche yesterday that severely damaged the bottom return station of the Triple Chair.

The mountain received over 2.8 metres of new snow in last week's storm which was described as the largest in over two decades!

Mt Hutt had to fly staff in to start the massive job of clearing snow with patrollers carrying out avalanche control over the weekend from helicopters.

 

“When there's to much snow”

Don't forget to check this out while your staying in Methven. We had an awesome time made an average day end up great!

Craig M
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia  

Around 1300 keen skiers and snowboarders helped Canterburys Mt Hutt celebrate its scheduled opening (June 15). The keenest of all  the seventy or so waiting for the Summit 6 and Quad chairlifts to crank into action for the season, including four who had slept overnight at the ski area to gain coveted First On The Lift T-shirts  were rewarded when both lifts started up fifteen minutes early at 8.45am.

 

Heavy Snow for Canterbury and Southern Marlborough

A very strong and cold southery flow spreads over the South Island tonight, with snow expected to lower to near sea level about southern and eastern areas.Heavy snow is expected about Canterbury, and southern parts of Marlborough above 300 metres, commencing in the south tonight, then further north Thursday morning.This is a significant event which is expected to persist through until Friday morning, accumulations likely to exceed 50cm above 300 metres, and 100cm above 500 metres. Lesser amounts of snow are expected below 300 metres, with significant rainfall accumulations likely with 60 to 90mm expected over the period.

Wow! On a backpacking tour through New Zealand, I figured I'd give the famous Kiwi jetboating a spin - the weather was perfect the day I ended up in Methven, so I found myself at the Rakaia Gorge. The owner, Blair, had a full crew with him today, and was busy chatting to everyone when I showed up. After a bit of a tour along the gorge (pretty scenic, with steep canyon walls and the mountains in the distance), he asked us if we were ready to do a spin - pretty sweet rush, not too dizzying (younger kids should be fine) but good fun. We stopped a few times, to point out something in the geography and to allow for some pictures.

As I'd never been in a jetboat before, the feeling of skimming the water was really cool - if you get the chance and the weather's right, I'd recommend doing this over another boat tour, just because it's a fast, unique way to travel, and it's still a bit of a secret - at least for now!

Ryan, Canada

We're lucky enough to enjoy stunning scenery almost everyday! The Rakaia gorge and southern alps deliver some spectacular views. Check out some of our crews photography in our scenic gallery. 

 

With the Mt Hutt Ski season due to open in less than three weeks, you'll be able to keep an eye of the Snow Forecast here.

Some recent snow falls have delivered some spectacular views on our trips and some great photo ops for customers. If you have photos of a previous trip on Discovery Jet we would love to see them and hopefully publish them on this Blog!

Check out our latest 5 star review on Trip Advisor here.

'We are a doctor family from Mumbai, India and drove down from Christchurch to Rakia Gorge in 90 minutes. Our initial booking was for 930am. However, when we realized that we are likely to be late, Blair was kind enough to reschedule the trip for us at 1030am. He even called us up early in the morning to update us on the weather conditions. Incidentally we were the only ones at the Rakaia gorge that day and were lucky to have the boat and gorge (!) to ourselves. Blair was very friendly and ensured that we had a good time with many bonus 360 spins. The scenery was stunning and the jet boat was handled with dexterity. I have no hesitation in strongly recommending the discovery jet and its ride. Move over Shotover Jet.!'