We arrived at Mission Beach on Monday afternoon at 3.45pm where we did a bit of food shopping before checking into the family run hostel we had booked.

The owners knew we were there for the white water rafting and skydive like the majority of people who come to visit Mission Beach. Knowing this the owners made us aware of the predicted forecast for the week.. sunny on Tuesday and cloudy on Wednesday. We had booked white water rafting for Tuesday and the skydive for Wednesday. They said if there was poor visibility the skydive may be cancelled so we decided to change it to Tuesday morning at 7.30am to be on the safe side and swap the rafting to Thursday.

There isn't much to do in Mission Beach.. there are a few shops, cafes and bars but that is all so that night we decided to relax at the chilled hostel and have a few beers. We had an early night in preparation for the skydive in the morning.

I awoke at 6.30am very excited about what was in store for us in a few hours time. As soon as I got up I looked out the window to check on the weather, and...... it was a clear sunny day!! :)

We had our breakfast and walked down to the skydive centre just a few minutes from our hostel. It got to 7.45am but we were the only ones there and the shop was still closed so we started to worry.

Eventually someone came to open up but there was a mix up with our booking when we changed it the day before. Thankfully the staff were great and managed to sort it for us so that we'd be in the first group of 8 departing for the airport at 9.30am. We had a bit of waiting around but it didn't bother us as we were so excited to do the dive.

We had our safety briefing and met our instructors we'd be in tandem with.. I was with a guy called Mike who was really sound and he helped me into my harness. I'd asked for my dive to be filmed so I had a brief interview before jumping onto the bus taking us to the airport just 20 minutes away. I didn't feel nervous at all.. I was very excited but I thought the nerves may come later on when aboard the plane.

Something freaky happened on the journey over to the airport which grabbed our attention. A news report on the radio said there had just been a plane crash.. all our faces dropped! The instructors found it funny and we kind of laughed it off too. Bad timing or what??!!

We arrived at the airspace to a tiny plane which we boarded with our instructors. I was up for going first so we sat on a padded bench next to the flimsy sliding door which didn't seem safe at all, nor did the small clip attaching one side of my harness to the side of the plane.

The plane shot down the runway and took off en route to our destination of 14,000ft over the Great Barrier Reef.. the highest skydive in Australia. The views from the air were amazing and kind of kept my mind off what I was about to do. I was still very relaxed and not nervous at all which I found strange.

The time arrived.. we had reached 14,000ft over the Reef and then hopefully landing on Mission Beach. The door opened and still the nerves didn't come.. I just couldn't wait to do it, something I've always wanted to do.

I wasn't the first person out, I was the third but who cares. I sat on the edge of the doorway, legs dangling out the side of the plane with Mike attached to my back. This was it.. my life was in his hands now............................................

WOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A huuuuuuuuuge rush of adrenalin came over me as we somersaulted back and forth out of the plane plummeting toward the sea. Mike regained our balance so we were facing downwards and still the rush of adrenalin kept on coming. We freefalled for about 60 seconds until Mike pulled the cord...... the parachute flew out and halted the freefall abruptly, the harness digging right into my arms, shoulders and legs.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a feeling!! I was gobsmacked and speechless.

We began to calmly float effortlessly and elegantly in the sky, still very high up. Such a stark contrast to what I had just witnessed 30 seconds ago.

I regained my composure and began to take in the beauty of the panoramic views before me.. simply stunning!!! Overwhelming would not be an exaggeration... WOW WOW WOW!!! I could see for miles both inland and out to the ocean.. and below me the reefs scattered around the lush islands were easily visible through the crystal clear waters. It was so calm and peaceful.. I didn't want to land, I wanted to stay were I was floating in the air. Mike was aware of this and kept us up as long as possible but all good things come to an end as we continued our descent. He let me control the parachute which was really cool but as we neared our landing on the beach he took control again. We turned into the beach where the rest of the group had already landed and from what seemed a very steep angle we made a perfect smooth landing. Mike detached me and I bounced around on the beach with a big smile on my face when I saw the lads.

Wow! An unbelievable euphoric experience.. one which I will never forget! Still not as big a high as when Liverpool score an important goal but pretty damn close! :)

We walked off the beach back to the skydive centre sharing each others stories still buzzing from the dive. We had to wait for our dvd's and pictures so we decided to go for a beer on the beachfront whilst reflecting on what had just happened.

I think I had a big come down down from the huge buzz I had just had as I began to feel a little flat. I snapped myself out of it and went back to the centre to collect my dvd.. they also threw in a complimentary t-shirt for messing us around earlier that morning.

We decided to have lunch at one of the local cafes where we had fish and chips before heading down to the beach for the afternoon to chill and catch some rays whilst watching other groups land from their skydive.

The beach was perfect for running on so I went for a run later that afternoon which I really enjoyed.

We were all a little tired from the early morning start so we decided to chill in the evening. We cooked our tea.. Portuguese chicken with rice, which was awesome after not having it since leaving Stanthorpe, then we kicked back with a few beers and watched our skydives on the tv which was funny reliving the moment again and watching each others reactions.

After a good sleep that night I woke up relatively early and went for another run on the deserted beach followed by a mini workout. I did some laundry then headed back to the beach for the afternoon.. it was a nice sunny day again so we could have done the skydive on Wednesday after all.

We went out for a steak with the people who run the hostel and a few others in the evening. It was Leighton's birthday so we ended up having quite a few drinks at the bar and continued the night back at the hostel till after midnight.. not a good idea with having to be up at 7am to go white water rafting!

We woke up on Thursday morning still feeling the effects of the previous night and not looking forward to getting wet all day! We had our breakfast then jumped on the bus which picked us up outside the hostel at 7.30am. It took us about an hour to get to the Tully River we'd be rafting on.

Once we arrived we kitted ourselves out with all the necessary equipment and met our group leader, Ash, who was really sound and a good laugh. We had two German girls with us in our raft who were also a good laugh.

We made our way down to the river where Ash sat us in the raft and briefed us on the basic skills we'd be using for the day. We were told it'd be very likely we'd fall out of the raft at some point during the day.. so my fight with water was back on again.

We got underway but the pace was pretty slow as there was about twenty other rafts taking the same route as us so we had to wait around a few times for the traffic to disperse. I decided to jump in the water whilst we waited to see what it was like.. it wasn't too cold so I floated down stream in my lifejacket with my feet up which was nice and relaxing.

We did 2 hours of rafting before we stopped for dinner after being drenched under a freezing cold waterfall!! We had a decent BBQ lunch then jumped straight back in the raft for another 2 hour stint. It was alot of fun but not as challenging and scary as I thought it would be.. I didn't even fall out of the raft either.

We dried ourselves off and headed back to the hostel after a short visit to the rafting centre. We had a bus to catch to Cairns at 5.20pm so we gathered all our luggage and checked out the hostel.

On our way up to Cairns now where we have booked for three nights in a hostel by the lagoon. We have come to the end of the activities we had booked up the east coast so it's decision time of what to do next. The boys are looking to find work and I'm not exactly sure of what I'm going to do.. Asia for the remainder of the time before I go home at the end of July is a serious consideration.

It's decision time again..

xx