Jet Boating in Auckland Harbour!

Remember the jet boat that we went down the Wanganui River in back last November? Well, since then it’s got a bigger engine and some other things changed (and they took the big stone out of the impeller) so now it’s really really fast! They’ve added a bar behind the driver which is very useful to hand on to for dear life, as I found out pretty quickly when Dave took us out in the Harbour in Auckland one quiet Saturday morning.

Dave and some others were out practising for a swim from Paihia to Russell in Northland. It’s a relay swim where each swimmer dives into the water grabbing the team flag on the way and swims until the support boat has caught up with them and someone else takes over, leaving the first swimmer to get back into the boat again. Then the boat catches up with the second swimmer and a third swimmer takes over and so on. I think they had about 4 swimmers per team who each do several quick sprints until they are nearly in Russell, at which stage the team diver takes over the flag and swims along the sea bed to the shore, runs up the beach and skulls a drink to win the race. Strange you might think, but the people doing this are the same people that play Underwater Hockey and Underwater Rugby so it’s a perfectly normal thing for them to do!

While they practised their turnovers, the rest of us were left to play with the jet boat. Seán had fun driving us around the harbour and under the bridge at ridiculous speeds, while I hung onto the safety bar! Good fun!