Day 61: Adventure Capital of the World!!!

Yahooo!

We've just arrived in Cairn's travelling up the east coast of Australia and it's bloody been awesome!!!  I guess my pre conception about Australia was outdoor adventure sports and man have we been going crazy out here :D  Today is our last day in Australia and I topped the whole adventure by going up 14000 feet into the sky and jumping out of a plane at Mission Beach!!!  Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined myself doing something so crazy as a skydive, but hey, it was bloody awesome!!!  I mean this trip has been about facing my fears- of heights and deep water and I think I'm dead chuffed to have now completed a trio, thanks to a little nudge here and there from Oscar :D  Open Water Scuba Diving in Fiji.  Climbing the Sydney Harbour bridge In Sydney.  And now Skydiving in Mission Beach.  What a shit hot time!

Since we left Sydney we've travalled up the east Coast on the Oz Experience bus which is basically like a tour bus with twenty-something guys and gals looking for an adventure.  Met some great people and made some awesome friends along the way up :)  But what makes it really cool are the activities we get packed into less than 3 weeks!  In Barrington tops we went Night White Water Rafting which was just wicked.  In Crescent Head we had surfing lessons and I've just fallen in love with it!!  In Byron Bay we went to the infamous Cheeky Monkeys bar and danced til the early morn :D  We then headed up to Nimbin to check out the hippy capital of Australia which was just funny.  Just outside Surfers Paradise we went Zorbing, where you get rolled down a massive huill in a big infaltable ball filled with 80 litres of water, which had us in hysterics!  In Hervey Bay we took 1 day tour of Fraser Island- the largest sand island in the world which was spectacular.  In Kroombit we stayed on a Cattle ranch and had a go at goat rodeo, bucking bronco and clay pigeon shooting.  Then in Airlie Beach we went sailing for 3 days around the Whitsunday's islands on a Maxi Racign Yacht called 'Matador' which was absolutely awesome!  We lived on the boat for 3 days and made some great friends and had some great times playing 'I never' and chilling on the deck.  Also made use of my Scuba Diving License to check out the Great Barrier Reef.  In Magnetic Island we stayed in a really cool beach resot hostel called Base and what was supposed to be a quiet night in, turned out to be a hysterical laugh at the bar where it was 'ladies night'.  Me, Oscar and a few more Oz Experience crew entered a 'dress like a lady' competition and had to prance around and lapdance on a poor gal.  haha, I managed to win with a name like ' Miss Bancock', which I'm not sure is a good thing, but it really was a hysterical night!  And finally this morning in Mission Beach I woke up at 5am to face my fears and go for a 14000 feet skydive!  F*ck me!  The first 5 seconds were out of this world, then a minute of freefall was just amazing, before 5 minutes of gliding down, admiring the sunrise and checking out the beach from a birdseye view.  What a rush!!!  Absolutely mad, but so chuffed I did it :D  On our way to Cairns we held crocodiles and snakes at a Crocodile farm, Oscar did a mad Bungee Jump (the crazy fool) and now we're here about to party our last ngiht away in australia at the Wool Shed bar. 

Australia has been bloody awesome, and I think the Oz Experience has made the difference to my stay.  Just such a super time along the way and the people have made the difference.  Tommorrow we fly to Tokyo for the last leg of our trip and we're really looking forward to seeing the cultural explosion and contrast!  I'll flesh out this blog some other time, but for now hope every one is having a great summer.

See ya later!
John.