The Jetboat Was Fun but the Silence was Best

We joined Geoff Brown, Managing Director of the Longridge Fun Park for a spin on a jetboat up the Kiatuna river this morning. These 385 horsepower machines spin on a dime, and draw only about six inches of water. Both sides of this spring fed river were lined with prolific ferns and greenery, 'This is what all of New Zealand looked like when we got here," said Geoff. Way up high, moss covered cliffs bordered the engorged green river.

We shot up the river and waited for Geoff to signal that he was about to go into a 360 degree spin. Cindy and I clung to the red railing as the boat spun from a fast speed all the way around, and then the engine roared again and we felt like James Bond speeding up the green river dodging the branches and nearly clipping the moss-covered rocks.

But the most fantastic part of this adreneline filled seven-mile trip was when we reached rapids and rocks too steep for the throaty boat to negotiate. Then Geoff turned off the rumbling, bubbling motor. Silence engulfed us as we drifted downstream....a glorious, heavenly silence and the only sound was the gurgling clear water, and the cicadas that chirped unseen in the green above us. Nobody spoke, nobody wanted to wreck this delicious quiet, nobody interrupted the cicadas and the rushing water except a few birds. We drifted down a bit further, Geoff gave us a little more of the silence as we drank in the lush tropical beauty of this rainforest that bordered this clean free-flowing river. Then he turned the motor back on and we roared back down the curvy path that we had come up.