Bill Cook - Bill’s Thrills – A Jet Boating Legend
He’s negotiated the craggy Shotover River canyons and the shallow Dart River braids at speed for 40 years, taking thousands of thrillseeking tourists on the jet boat ride of their lives.
It’s all in a day’s work for veteran jet boat driver Bill Cook, who’s also assisted with many rescue operations through the years.
You’d think he’d know every rock, rapid and bend in the rivers like the back of his hand. Not necessarily. While it’s all too familiar, the rivers are constantly changing – the deceiving and deadly undertow at Glenorchy recently is testament to this, says Bill, who assisted in those searches for two drowning victims.
Bill was always destined for a life on the water, despite being born in Ranfurly and growing up in Athol.
Son of a Rabbit Board pest destruction supervisor, Bill was a typical southern kid, into hunting, fishing and rugby, boarding at Southland Boys High School.
Bill and two mates bought their own jet boat, with Queenstown their favourite weekend getaway.
After various jobs, including professional hunting and crayfishing off Bluff – a town founded by his great, great, great grandfather and hometown of his Māori mother’s whanau, Bill found his niche in 1984. Former Shotover Jet marketing manager Steve Lindsay suggested Bill apply for a job as one of their drivers, at just 25 and with no commercial experience. “That’s the way they liked it so we had no bad habits,” he says. He fought off many applicants in what was a highly sought-after position.
Training with driver Tim Warwick lasted until Tim felt Bill was competent. “Driving was a bit closer to the rocks and the boats weren’t as fast back then.” “I went out on a ride with (driver) Tony Warwick and Trevor (Gamble) asked me if I could do that and I said, ‘yes, of course’, even though I was terrified,” grins Bill. “Tim told stories, consumed multiple pies and we had many smoke stops for him, but it was fairly intense.” In four decades Bill’s had no major accidents or dangerous mechanical issues which he credits to that quality training and head mechanic Andy Stevens. Bill’s boat once shot backwards and up onto dry land during a failed 360deg spin though, thankfully, not the day Queen Elizabeth II was waving from Edith Cavell Bridge.
Peak summer meant 25 trips each a day with repeated commentaries. “I can remember coming up the gorge in the dark with broken down boats then we’d all help Andy with engine changes. Trevor would be there with pizzas and the odd thirst quencher, or four.”
Boat driver and prankster Phil Ball ensured many laughs. Bill and Phil once drove the motorised life jacket stand from the Arthur’s Point beach base to Arrowtown for a pie. “We were escorted back by the amused cops,” grins Bill.
On snow days the drivers would use the boat tractors to tow locals’ cars out, with all donations going to the Arthurs Point Pub. One year the Shotover froze over at Skippers causing havoc with huge sludge ice beaching Bill’s trip.
He’s taken many movie and sports stars for a spin, including Robert Mitchum and ‘Lord of the Rings’ actors, and worked as a boat and stunt driver for movies locally. Bill’s wife Phillipa came to collect him once during the filming of 1980s ‘Willow’ when Bill was with little person actor Warwick Davis. She opened the door for me, not seeing Warwick (under 1.2m), who jumped in beside her. She got a heck of a fright.”
After seven years he and Phillipa started Dart Wilderness Jet, selling to Shotover Jet in 1997. Bill’s love of hunting and friendship with helicopter pilot Pete Saxton birthed an idea for heli-jet boat-style adventures up the Dart River. That eventuated as just a jet boat operation. “We were probably the first jet boat company to go through the costly resource consent process in the 1990s.”
Bill’s also driven for Ross Marett’s Heli-Jet, been a fishing and hunting guide, water taxi operator and hired pot plants, before setting up Dart Wilderness Adventures, then in competition with Shotover Jet on the Dart, for Glynn Kemp. More consent battles and on-selling occurred with Ngai Tahu taking over that operation.
Bill stayed on a while before operating a wild game processing operation at Bendigo, doing some casual Dart driving, before Ngai Tahu offered him a fulltime operations role for what is now Dart River Safaris.
He’s still pumping out the thrills for Ngai Tahu’s Dart River Adventures as senior boat driver, doing what he loves. “Working for Ngai Tahu Tourism has brought me back to my whakapapa.” …And to his eight-year-old self, first introduced to jet boats and the beauty of the Dart hunting with his dad. “The beauty of where I work is so stunning. I get to be in the outdoors for a job and that’s who I am,” he says. “I’m lucky enough to also drive boats for their Hollyford Guided Walks through the Pyke and Hollyford Valley to Martin’s Bay Lodge, another area I really enjoy.”
