Arthurs Point and the Shotover River

Why it matters

The river came first. Shotover Jet, owned by Ngāi Tahu, calls the river Kimiākau and says Ngāi Tahu ancestors used it as part of ancient trails for mahinga kai. Its English name came later: Destination Queenstown, the region’s tourism body, says Rees’s party named it after Shotover Park, the English home of Rees’s business partner.

Then the gold, and a name. In 1862 Thomas Arthur found gold on the Shotover, and the claim, Destination Queenstown says, was christened Arthur’s Point. Miners needed to work both banks and reach Skippers Canyon, Heritage New Zealand says, so a wooden bridge followed in 1875.

The bridge you cross today opened in February 1919. Heritage New Zealand lists the Edith Cavell Bridge in Category 1: two concrete parabolic arches designed by the engineer Frederick Furkert, only the second reinforced concrete arch bridge built in New Zealand, keeping the stone abutments of the 1875 bridge at either end. Local tradition, the listing says, credits the name to a goldminer, Jack Clark, who admired the British nurse Edith Cavell, shot in the First World War for helping British soldiers in Belgium. The council refused his request to name the bridge after her, so he painted her name on its side. The paint faded; the name stayed.

And then the jet boats. Soon after Bill Hamilton invented the jet unit, Shotover Jet says, the Melhop brothers began commercial jet boating on the river, and in 1965 the company started from the beach at Arthur’s Point, carrying 1,480 passengers that first year. Ngāi Tahu Holdings became a major shareholder in 1999, and the company is now wholly owned and operated by the iwi. It says it is the only company permitted in the Shotover canyons. Up-river, Skippers Canyon holds the rest of the gold story, and we come to it below.

What it’s like

You can watch before you ride. Shotover Jet calls the bridge on Arthurs Point Road its viewing platform for the boats below, and its river base, immediately over the bridge, has viewing areas, lockers, toilets and a shop. Departures run every half hour from 9.30am to 4pm, every day but Christmas Day, weather permitting.

The ride is short and full. The canyons, Shotover Jet says, are steep rock walls carved over thousands of years by water from the Southern Alps. For about 25 minutes the boats, built in Queenstown with twin V8 engines, run through them at up to 90 km/h over shallow water, with 360-degree spins. There is some wind chill at speed, the company says, and its handrails are heated. You may get a little wet.

The hot pools are the other half of Arthurs Point. Onsen Hot Pools sits below the road on the banks of the Shotover, down a winding track or stairway. Its Original pools are cedar-lined, filled with mountain water heated to about 38°C, with a roof that opens to the alpine views at the push of a button. Each pool is booked for your group alone, though Onsen says it is exclusive rather than private: the pools share walls, so you may hear your neighbours.

For a longer fall, there is the canyon swing. Shotover Canyon Swing runs its site at Arthurs Point from a platform 109 metres high, with 60 metres of freefall and a 200-metre swing. There is no public access; it drives you there from town.

And a quieter corner. Just before the bridge, a Department of Conservation (DOC) track, the Oxenbridge Tunnel Track, is a 20-minute walk to a viewpoint over the historic Oxenbridge Tunnel river diversion and an old steam engine.

How to visit

By car. From the top of Shotover Street, follow Gorge Road towards Arthurs Point and Coronet Peak. Cross the one-lane Edith Cavell Bridge and the Shotover Jet entrance is immediately on your left, with free parking; check in 30 minutes before your ride. Onsen is a gentle climb further on, beside The General Store, with limited free parking for cars only, not campervans, and a 100-metre walk down a track or stairway; Onsen asks you to arrive 15 minutes early. Both operators put the drive at about 10 minutes, close enough that Arthurs Point is part of a stay in Queenstown rather than a trip away from it. We have not been to Arthurs Point ourselves, so this page is research, not a visit.

Without driving. Shotover Jet runs a free shuttle for selected departures from the Station Building, on the corner of Camp and Shotover Streets: check in 45 minutes before your ride and allow about an hour and 45 minutes in all. Spectators can ride it if there is room. Onsen’s free shuttle for its guests leaves from Bus Stop D on the same corner, by request and subject to availability, and should be booked with your soak. Shotover Canyon Swing includes transport from its office at 34 Shotover Street. Orbus Route 4 also runs through Arthurs Point daily; Orbus’s website gave the adult fare on 11 September 2026 as NZ$2.50 on a Bee Card or NZ$4 cash, says bank cards cannot be used, and calls its times a guide.

What there is to do. Prices are from each operator’s website.

Making the most of it

Book the hot pools first. Onsen says it is heavily booked most days and releases its sessions about five to six months ahead; cancellations show up on its website as ordinary availability, and there is a waitlist if your day is full. Children aged 5 to 11 can soak before 5pm; from 5pm the pools are for 12 and over. Bring swimwear, which is compulsory, and slippers or slides, as Onsen recommends.

Choose your light. In daylight the Original pools’ roofs open on the mountains. After sunset Onsen promises stars and Japanese lanterns. Pools stay open until 11pm, with the last booking at 10pm.

Dress for the boat, and check the height rule. Shotover Jet provides life jackets but not spray jackets, so bring a waterproof layer, and in winter a hat and gloves. Riders must be at least 1 metre tall, raised to 1.2 metres when weather and river conditions call for it; the company checks the river each morning and posts the day’s rule on its website. On 11 September it was 1.2 metres.

Arrive on foot from Ben Lomond. Destination Queenstown says walkers on the way up Ben Lomond can turn onto the Moonlight Track and head for Arthurs Point instead of the summit, which makes a hot pool a well-earned ending.

Keep Skippers for another visit. DOC describes a virtual ghost town up-river: a school open from 1879 to 1927 and restored by DOC, a cemetery of 20 headstones and graves, and the ruins of Johnston’s Otago Hotel. Population fell from about 700 in the 1860s to 92 by 1901. DOC’s Skippers page adds that the Bullendale hydro mine of 1886 was the first industrial use of electricity in New Zealand, and the canyon stood in for the Ford of Bruinen in the Lord of the Rings films. Destination Queenstown adds that New Zealand’s first commercial rafting business began in upper Skippers Canyon in the 1970s.

Nearby

Queenstown is about 10 minutes back down Gorge Road. Above you, Bob’s Peak and Ben Lomond are joined to Arthurs Point by the Moonlight Track, which also leads to Moke Lake. Orbus Route 4 carries on to Arrowtown, which Onsen puts 13 kilometres away. At Arthurs Point the road to Coronet Peak turns off, and from it the unsealed road to Skippers, for when that reopens. Up on Coronet Peak, Destination Queenstown points to the new Coronet Express Gondola for 360-degree views of Queenstown and the Southern Alps.