Tauranga city jet boat tours ready to roll

Exciting jet boat excursions are all set to begin operating from Tauranga's downtown in three to four weeks to cash in on the influx of visitors for the Rugby World Cup.

"We have pretty much ticked all the boxes - everything is pretty good to go," jet boat driver and helicopter pilot Dave Rayner said.

Spring Loaded Adventures, which operates the Kaituna River jets, will use one of its two boats for the 30-minute excursions out to Omokoroa, rounding Motuhoa Island, as first revealed in the Bay of Plenty Times on Tuesday

Mr Rayner said that once they were on the main harbour channels they were largely outside the 5km/h speed restrictions that are in place within 200m of shore.

Although it could not be compared to the real adrenaline ride on the Kaituna, he said passengers would still experience plenty of thrills as the driver did spins and zips in and out.

There was the bonus of seeing the city, the port and Motuhoa Island from the perspective of a trip up the harbour.

Spring Loaded Adventures will join up with 10 other tourism operators who plan to base themselves in the glass box pontoon at the southern end of The Strand waterfront during the Rugby World Cup. Most will bus tourists away from The Strand whereas the jet boat will tie up on the floating pontoon next to the glass box.

The other operators included Blokart Heaven, Katipo Adventures, Matakana Island Tours, Seatrek, No8 Tours, Stand Up Paddle Boards and Adventure Bay of Plenty.

Mr Rayner said Spring Loaded had been thinking about starting jet boat excursions from The Strand but it needed Tauranga's Rugby World Cup festival organisers, REAL, to give them a "kick up the butt" and make it happen.

The new attraction had been four months in the planning and the World Cup would be a good test for how things would go, he said. The company had invested a lot of money to get the boats surveyed for the harbour and for the drivers to obtain their launch operator's certificate.

At this stage, they were looking to run the excursions over the summer. "We are testing the water to see what works."

Mr Rayner has trialled the jet boat on the route at low tide.

The boat needed 10cm of water to scoot along and 1m depth for a spin.