We finally arrived in OZ and considering it was nearing December it was hotter than ever! We checked in to our hostel and headed down to the lagoon on the esplanade, the lagoon was huge with big outdoor BBQ's you could use all day to prepare your 'shrimps on the Barbie!' We soon discovered that OZ was going to quickly destroy our bank balance compared to the three months in Asia where you could live on pennies! So once we'd blown our budget on our greyhound ticket and trips around the Whitsundays and Fraser Island we then set our sights on higher things.......14,000 feet higher to be precise! Rich cashed in his year old anniversary present and got himself on the next available skydive and Shelly was quick to follow suit. ..the next morning we got picked up from our hostel and taken up to the skydive centre where we got a 10 minute brief on how to skydive...then off we went to the landing site! We got kitted up in some 'topgun' style red pants and harness and headed for the plane...it looked like a toy plane it was that small but all 8 of us fitted in between each other's legs and off we went! It was so noisy in the plane as they flew us over the great barrier reef that seemed like it went on forever, we were given a nudge when we'd reach 7,000 feet, half way!!! Once we'd climbed to the full 14,000 feet Rich's face went white as the guy pulled up the plastic door holding us all in. Rich was the first to take for the sky, he said his goodbyes to the camera and before Shelly knew what was happening he'd disappeared out the plane and from view! Then it was Shelly's turn to take the dive and with the smallest Aussie guy she'd ever met strapped to her back out she jumped! It was the most unbelievable feeling as we tumbled down towards earth in a 60 second freefall!! Our stomachs were doing flips and our smiles were being stretched to our ears by the wind force! After 60 seconds of pure adrenalin, fear and excitement the parachute burst open (luckily!) and it seemed like we had come to a stop mid air! It was then time for some showing off so with rich on his controls and Shelly still screaming for dear life we began to loop de loop towards the ground...it was so cool, felt like you were actually flying! We both had pretty smooth landings and came back to ground with the biggest high you can imagine...well that and a little bit of nausea for Rich (not sure it was the sky dive or the sun burn!) We both swore to do another dive and headed back to the office to collect the DVD's of our dive...they're so good!

The next day we had another amazing day at the Great Barrier Reef. We set out on a huge speed boat and after a few hours we could see waves breaking right in the middle of the ocean miles from any land....we'd reached the reef! We all donned our very sexy stinger suits and although this place is one of the most beautiful in the world someone was having a joke when they put 2 types of deadly stingers in the waters around here! So once we were all dressed up like 'Smurfs' in our full blue suits we jumped in to explore the underwater coral cities! It was absolutely beautiful with reef sharks, 'Nemo' fish, sea cucumbers and 'Wally' fish- these were the coolest fish, they were absolutely massive, (about the size of Shelly) and were so friendly you could grab onto the hump on top of their heads and they would pull you along under the water! We visited a few different dive sites that were all beautiful and then we boarded the 'semi sub', it was a boat that you sat low down in so you were about 7 meters under the water....pretty cool way to see some more crazily colourful fish and sea creatures! After an amazing day we let ourselves get even more crispy on the way home on top of the boat before heading back for a few beverages and anther free meal provided by the hostel (Not great food but it filled you and considering the prices of everything well appreciated!) We also managed to fit in a quick didgeridoo lesson, these things are not easy to play but after a few failed attempts Shelly was convinced she was an aborigine and we were both discussing how we could get one sent home-would love to see our mum's faces when that was delivered one morning! After our musical talents had been brought to light we headed to catch our first greyhound down the coast to mission beach.