16th May 2013

After a nice lay-in and a Birthday breakfast for Chris's 20th. Kim, Kerry, Stevie and I packed up our day bags and waited for the taxi. Chris packed as the taxi pulled up. Finally we headed off to the airport. After and easy check in, 3 hour 45 mins flight we landed in the Gold Coast, Australia. One expensive taxi ride later the 5 of us arrived at Surfers Paradise. Our room was small, but was right on the seafront, giving us a beautiful view of the pacific.

As it was Chris's Birthday we decided to head out for a few cheeky drinks and a meal. En route we ended up purchasing tickets to the infamous Wicked pub crawl for the Saturday night. As abonus we also got a promotion to vanity for tonight. Which gave the girls free entry and free drink all night and $1 beers for the guys. With the drinking element organised, We found ourselves in 'Kitty Osheas' an Irish bar for a bite to eat. It was a good laugh with the occassional split drink and talk about our free entry into Showgirls and Vanity, with our stomachs full and a few beers later. We headed to Vanity. A few beers later the 4 our us were busting shapes on the dance floor, Chris kind of wobbled and swayed. Feeling the effects of the alcohol the 5 of us headed to the beach. I wanted to swim in the sea but, the guys stopped me. It wasnt long before Chris was chasing me around the beach and falling in the sand. Bless these young lads with a bit of drink. Around 1am we arrived back at our appartment and crashed out. (After everyone crashed I headed for a kebab)

17th May 2013

With the sun shining through our window, it was an early start to the morning, the mild hangover and lingering taste of the kebab was a reminder of the night before. We decided to head to the Centro Mall on Cavill avenue and fire some guns, as I thought it would be nice for Chris's Birthday weekend. In the end Chris, Kim, Kerry and I ended up buying a shooting package. Chris fired the shot gun first at moving targets. Then the 4 of us had a go at shooting a maginzine on a Glock 9mm, Magnum .357, It was loud even with the head muffs on. I can admit that the girls were a better shot than us. In all the excitement Chris and I had to shoot some more guns, We decided on the Desert Eagle .44, we both missed the target by miles only scoring one hit. Finally we shot the worlds most powerful hand gun! the Smith and Wesson Magnum 500 revolver. Holding the lil handle I thought I would loose the grip. It was powerful! A load band and flash of light. One shot I was on the bulls eye. Definately a revolver guy.

Buzzing from the shooting range, we had a little shop and headed to the beach. The sun was shining at 25C, beautiful bodies, terquise ocean and soft golden sands.....This is the life! I was on the beah for 5 minutes before I was diving in the sea, diving into the waves and trying to body surf them back. It was a powerful rip.

Back on the beach we played Frisbee together. Although Chris threw it more than span the disk through the air. We spend most of the day lacking up the sun and relaxing....

....Later that evening we watched the sunset and strolled the evening sea front arts and crafts market. This is a beautiful place. We all paid $2 to look at some powerful telescopes at the moon. It was amazing, these powerful scopes really brought you close to space. You could see the moon spin and the different mountain ranges.

We then went on the Gold Coast version of the London Eye...we were less then thrilled, we couldnt really see much and we just kept going round as wewere the only ones on it!!!!!

We finished the evening....suprise surprise in another Irish bar. We had a few games of pool, Kerry and I ordered Hot Wings, that ridiculously blew us away. The night was going well until Kym ordered 5 snake bits! The stroll home with Chris stopping every 5 minutes to be sick was amusing. I crashed straight away! Early finish for the big day tomorrow. The Skydive!!!

18th May 2013

The moring of the Skydive! The Skydive wasn't until 12.30, so we all headed out to breakfast on the esplanade. We walked alone the beach, brought some warm clothes for our Skydive and headed back to the appartment to relieve our nerves. 2 toilet rolls later we were ready to head to the bus stop and ventured to Kirra Beach. The bus took forever, we all didn't think we would make it as the bus was going around the house and non of us knew where we were going, Luckily a guy on the bus helped us get there. It helped the nerves though. We watched a few videos of past jumps and the previous group coming down outside. It got us more excited. It wasnt long before we were introduced to our diving masters. They all had a good sense of humour, cracking jokes, Mine was called 'Bully' he had a strong Aussie accent. It was awkward talking to the camera for our video. We took a mini bus from the beach to the airport. It wasnt long before the 5 of us were on the plane and in the air.

The nerves didnt really kick in as our diving masters were keeping us busy, recording, cracking jokes and the scenary was amazing. 'Bully' kept pretending to make my harness to fall off. We finally reached 12,000ft, Goggles on. It was time to go. Kerry was the first to go, she was there one minute and gone the next, we wiggled up to the door. Next was Kym. ...Gone, the speed we were moving was to fast to think. I was third. Tandem with 'Bully' we wiggled to the door. I hung my legs out and could feel the wind on my legs. I crossed my arms, leaned my head back and before I knew it we were outside, flipping all over the show, I had to close my eyes. I'm sure we did a back flip before we levelled out. A tap on the shoulder was the signal that I could uncross my hands. I opened my eyes and spread out. It was amazing, 35 seconds of free fall travelling at 200kph. The view was amazing. I could see for miles inland, the golden sands of the Gold coast and the vast Pacific ocean. You really get caught up in the moment and your mind just goes blank. We span around a few times. A few camera shots later 'Bully' pulled the parachute. We slowed dramtically, It was peaceful, I could see the other guys in the distance. I didnt like it when the 'Bully' spun the chute around to speed up the landing. As we approached the beach, I straighten my legs in front of me and landed softly on the sand. I was the first to land, relieved to land because I got a bit of motion sickness from the chute. I watched the rest of the group land. All with big smiles on their faces. It was awesome. We headed back to the shop to de-kit. We had a while to wait for our photos and videos to burn so we headed downstairs and had a beer and exitedly chatted about our different experiences from the dive. We finally headed back up and watched out videos back. They were Awesome! Some cool, some funny. It is something everyone should experience.

Tonight was the night of the Wicked pub crawl. So jumped into a taxi and headed back to Surfers paradise, I'm sure we all slept in the taxi on the way back. the jump takes it out of you. A quick shower later the 5 of us were dolled up and heading to the first bar for a free drink and BBQ. The second venue was a bowling alley, If you got a strike you got a free shot. Chris got the first strike and Kerry got the last one of the evening, but we all manged to get strikes alone the way. Next stop was Vanity. A few shots later, the night was picking up, The next bar I can remember was Sin City, Chris and I ended up getting seperated from the girls. By the end of the night we were all seperated. I decided to use my free pass to showgirls. (included in the crawl) 4.30am I end up rocking up at the appartment. - I couldnt get in the building as I had no key, so decided to get a Maccas and wander around. Luckily randomly Chris can down to reception and let me in when I was getting ready to kip ousite....

19th May 2013

Waking up early with hardly no sleep and hanging from the big night before, the best cure I could think of was heading to the beach and diving straight in the sea. Stevie, Chris and I headed straight there and it really helped. A quick run by Stevie to Hunger Jacks was the final piece of the puzzle. We relaxed on the beach until it was time to pack our bags. We met back up with Kim and Kerry and signed out of our appartment before heading back out to the beach to relax for the rest of the day until it was time to head to the airport for our flight back to the New Zealand. We tried to check in, but the check in desk would not let us board the plan as non of us had our New Zealand visa in our passport. A few complaints later, we managed to board the plane, not before doing a bit more shopping. Clothes in NZ are not very good. 3 hours later we were back in Christchurch, ....and it was raining, back to reality.