Kawarau Jet Ltd holds resource consents which would allow it to double its fleet on the Kawarau River to 16 boats, the "capacity" number for the river, commissioners in a resource consent hearing were told yesterday.
While giving evidence for Kawarau Jet opposing Queenstown Water Taxis' application to resume its Thunder Jet operation on the Kawarau River, former Helijet owner Ross Marett said initially he saw no issue with a new operation on the river.
Yesterday, however, he said it could not work, even with strict communication protocols in place, and said he needed to "dispel any myth of the good old days, where everything ran well".
He remembered an accident on the Kawarau River he helped investigate in 1980, which killed five people in commercial boats, and was caused by rival drivers not knowing the other boat was coming and colliding at a blind bluff.
When the commissioners tabled an email he sent in December stating "if all concerned followed the rules that were in place during my time . . .
I would have thought more than one company could operate safely", he said he had changed his mind on discovering Kawarau Jet held consents to operate 16 boats.
"The point at which [more] commercial jet-boats should be allowed on the lake and Kawarau River has been reached through KJL's consents," he said.
He thought even 16 boats was unsafe and an additional operator would create risks, especially when other recreational users did not always know, or follow, the "river right and other safety rules" for waterways.
Kawarau Jet director Shaun Kelly told commissioners John Matthews and Leigh Overton that despite communication being mandatory in Maritime New Zealand rules for commercial operators, no communication between the companies had taken place in the 80 days Queenstown Water Taxis had been on the Kawarau River last summer, before its non-notified consent was quashed in a High Court judicial review.
He said Queenstown Water Taxis had caused considerable disruption to Kawarau Jet's business, because neither party established proper radio contact.
Instead, Kawarau Jet had suspended its "Flow" rafting and fun kayak operations on the lower Kawarau and posted spotters on the river, to ensure its drivers knew where the rival boat was.
Mr Kelly said although Kawarau Jet had not reported any breaches by Thunder Jet to the harbourmaster, it had a photograph of a Queenstown Water Taxis boat breaching the rule dictating boats should keep to the right of the river, and the rival boats had routinely failed to give way at the confluence of the Shotover and Kawarau Rivers, which was stipulated in a bylaw.
However, the safety breaches came to light only after questioning by Mr Matthews.
Despite saying safety was a paramount issue, Mr Kelly did not mention the incidents in his written evidence or report them at the time.
Although the hearing was supposed to finish yesterday, three Kawarau Jet witnesses; another submission, estimated to take two hours; and closing comments from the applicant's counsel, Pru Steven, are still to be heard.
The commissioners ordered the hearing reconvene next Tuesday.
