More than 20 boats, including two from Canada, will race at speeds of up to 180kmh on the Waitaki River on Wednesday in one of the legs of the New Zealand jet-boat marathon.
The marathon starts in Christchurch today with technical inspections and a boat show, followed by racing starting with a criterion on the Waimakariri River tomorrow.
That will be followed by other legs on the Waiau and Rakaia Rivers before the marathon comes to the Waitaki River on Wednesday.
Thursday is a rest day, followed by the final two legs on Friday and Saturday on the Waimakariri River.
One of those involved in the event, Peter Templeton, of Dunedin, said this year's marathon was also a trial run over those rivers for the World Jet-boat Marathon to be held about this time next year.
More than 60 boats are expected for the world marathon.
The Waitaki River leg of the New Zealand marathon will start about 9am from the Waitaki River bridge, after a briefing and the launching of the boats at Ferry Rd.
They will race the 75km to Kurow before lunch, then return down to the State Highway 1 bridge starting from about 12.15pm.
