Tourism icon Shotover Jet flies the flag for rugby

Media Release from Shotover Jet

6 September 2011

Tourism icon Shotover Jet flies the flag for rugby

As rugby fever sweeps the world, for the first time in more than 40 years New Zealand tourism icon Shotover Jet has changed its ‘Big Red’ jet boat livery in support of a major international sporting event.

Known internationally as ‘The World’s Most Exciting Jet Boat Ride’ and having recently celebrated carrying its three-millionth passenger, the Shotover Jet boats now feature the flags of a number of the major rugby planning nations competing in this year’s tournament.

Shotover Jet Manager Clark Scott said Shotover Jet had been synonymous with the colour red for many years.

‘However for the next couple of months our boats will sport some brand new colour schemes,” he said.

“We’re obviously extremely proud supporters of the All Blacks but our staff are a multicultural bunch so we’ve adopted some extra teams as well.”

The flags of nations including New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England, Ireland, France, Wales and Scotland feature on the foredecks of the company’s jet boats for the duration of the rugby tournament.

Mr Scott said the Shotover Jet team was “super excited” about the upcoming tournament and its opportunity to host a number of the teams and thousands of their fans on Shotover Jet.

“It was just fantastic to see the look on the Irish rugby squads’ faces when we hosted them last weekend, took them down to the Shotover River and invited them to step aboard a Shotover Jet boat emblazoned with the Irish national flag,” he said.

“The players got a real kick out of it and there were plenty of personal ‘happy snaps’ taken for them to send home to their friends and family.

“We’ve also had a great response from the hundreds of international rugby fans who have started to flood into Queenstown in the lead up to the event and those from around the world who now call Queenstown home.

“The chance to see a ‘Big Red’ Shotover Jet boat come hurtling out of the famous Shotover River canyons with their national flag on the front certainly brings a smile to their faces.”

Mr Scott said the company hoped to host the English, Romanian and Georgian teams later this week although only the English have a jet boat in their livery.

“We couldn’t do them all, unfortunately, because we have eight boats, so we picked the top eight teams.

“We might just have to put the Romanians or Georgians in an All Blacks boat!

“Our boats are rotated on the river throughout the day, so while we can’t book fans on a specific boat bearing their national flag, there are a number of photo opportunities as they’re often stationed on the beach.

“Otherwise fans can get an action shot of them completing a 360-degree spin as they pass our Shotover Jet river base.”

The multi tourism award winning attraction is 100% owned and operated by Ngāi Tahu Tourism, one of New Zealand’s premier tourism operators.

For more information about Shotover Jet, ‘The World’s Most Exciting Jet Boat Ride’ visit www.shotoverjet.com.

ENDS

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