Queenstown school pupils join in jetboat company’s anniversary celebrations

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-1821" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;10&sol;SND20-wk2-Shotover&lowbar;jet&period;jpg" alt&equals;"SND20-wk2-Shotover jet" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"200" &sol;>Queenstown tourism pioneer Shotover Jet is celebrating its 50th anniversary by offering free jetboat rides to all primary school-aged children in the Wakatipu Basin&period; <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On the first day of term four&comma; excited youngsters from Queenstown Primary School were first cab off the rank for their free rides on Monday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The iconic jet boat company is celebrating its landmark 50 years of innovation in tourism by transporting and giving free rides to around 1500 pupils across seven local schools&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Given the sheer volume of numbers&comma; it will take five weeks to spread the youngsters through the system&comma; allowing for bad-weather days&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The company has brought on additional bus drivers and jet boat drivers doing a few extra shifts to cater for the numbers&period;<br &sol;>Every child will also be gifted a free scarf and a history handout to use in follow up on tourism or technology projects at school&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The only schoolchildren who won&&num;8217&semi;t be going on the free trips are under a metre high &&num;8212&semi; the smallest height Shotover Jet&&num;8217&semi;s safety procedures allow them to carry&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We&&num;8217&semi;re celebrating 50 years of continuous operation and wanted to fully involve our local community in our proud tourism history&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Ng&amacr;i Tahu Tourism southern regional manager David Kennedy said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We had lots of very excited feedback through parents at school as the news leaked out at the end of last term&comma; so we&&num;8217&semi;re thrilled to have our first few classes on the water today with smiles miles wide&excl;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Queenstown Primary Middle School team leader Mary Orlowski said the school was &&num;8220&semi;thrilled&&num;8221&semi; to have the opportunity for its children to travel on Shotover Jet&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;It was such an adventure for them&semi; we had the full experience and the children were just blown away by that and can&&num;8217&semi;t stop talking about it&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she said&period; &&num;8220&semi;It was something many children wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t get to do&comma; so it&&num;8217&semi;s great that across the board they could do it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;It fits in perfectly with our community relations and helps establish our place in the community and what&&num;8217&semi;s available out there in terms of tourism&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In November 2015 Shotover Jet will become the first jet boat operator in the world to reach a milestone 50 years of continuous operation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It started operations on the upper Shotover River in 1965 and was one of the experiences that helped put New Zealand on the global tourism map&period;<&sol;p><&sol;p>&NewLine;