Heritage Kawarau Jet, born summer 1960 The world’s first commercial Jet boating operation, Kawarau Jet has its origins in a Christian youth trust set up to ensure the “spiritual, moral and physical wellbeing of the young people in Otago and Southland.” The early Jet boat industry was inextricably linked with the Lakeland Christian Camp in 1960 when camp trustees and Invercargill brothers Alan and Harold Melhop made the first powered navigation of the Kawarau Falls dam in a Hamilton Jet. Holidaymakers soon lined up for rides on the thrilling new boat, and at five shillings a go, the trip provided efficient fundraising for the Christian camp. So began one of Queenstown’s most successful and enduring tourist operations. The Kawarau Jet Service moved operations from the Frankton Jetty near the Frankton Campground to the Queenstown town pier at the urging of the then borough council, which was keen to benefit from the increasingly popular tourism operation. Soon after, the Shotover Extension was added providing a true safari from the Queenstown Town Pier, down the Kawarau and up the Shotover, through the canyons and under the Edith Cavil bridge as far as the Oxenbridge Tunnel. The boats often grounded in the shallow braids of the lower Shotover River and in 1964 a separate Shotover Jet Service was launched avoiding the challenging shallow waters. That trip started at the Edith Cavell Bridge and travelled down to Tucker Beach and back. Both the Kawarau and Shotover Jet services returned funds to the camp until 1966 by which time both services had been sold to pay off camp building mortgages. Two dormitories housing a total of 80 beds were paid for by the sale of the services. Kawarau Jet is still a Queenstown owned and operated business. Shaun and Sally Kelly now run the operation along with Queenstown business partners Andrew Brinsley and John Martin and all take pride in an enduring tradition of innovation.