Australia - high adrenaline but laid back experience?

[winspiff]

I'm planning to go to Australia this summer. I live in Connecticut, USA. I think my monetary limit is around $10,000 (loans), but I hope I don't have to spend that much.

I want to spend my time there skydiving, learning to surf, scuba diving, partying and hang gliding. I keep in shape, so other active stuff is good, too. I want a relaxed, laid back experience. This is really all about me opening up and feeling free to do what I want for the first time in my life (I'm 24).

I have no conception of how to get there, where to go, best places to stay, anything. Any ideas would be awesome. Also, any other websites you can point me to would be awesome as well.

Thanks!

[OnYourBike]

10k will get you about 2-3 weeks after flights. Kind of expensive now.

[The Legend]

not really. I'm here after a 1500 plane flight, about 30 a night at various hostels. I'm gonna be here a month. Going to do the Oz Experience bus to adelaide from sydney for the next two weeks. That's is 450. Plus food, I think 3500 is reasonable total.

[OnYourBike]

If you wanna live like a hobo you can do it cheap.

[WhoIam]

You realize that "this summer" will be winter in Australia and probably the worst time for most of these activities, right?

[Trix]

Summer in Australia is in about a month I think..

[Yeti]

i pretty much want to do the exact same things as you but in march, maybe apr

eagerly awaiting knowledgeable replies

[adsman]

[ QUOTE ]
I want to spend my time there skydiving, learning to surf, scuba diving, partying and hang gliding. I keep in shape, so other active stuff is good, too. I want a relaxed, laid back experience.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have only one word for you; Cairns.

This is backpacker heaven. It has an international airport. There are over 100 backpacker hostels. It is on the Great Barrier Reef. So there is the best diving in the world. You can raft, skydive, bungee jump, surf on the outer reef breaks and generally party yourself into a gibbering mess. If you can't get laid in cairns you may as well become a priest. Between June and September it is filled with Swedish backpackers. This is also the best time of year to visit weather wise as it is tropical and this is the dry season. I lived there for four years. You won't be disappointed. Have a nice time.

[Josem]

i think cairns is the answer for the OP.

it's bloody hot up there 12-months a year.



also, officially, the first day of summer in australia was just over a month ago. this is defined by the first day that it is too hot to touch your steering wheel in your car after you park it in the sun.


down in victoria (south eastern corner of australia) it's something around 90 degrees fahrenheit today, and theoretically it is only spring.



to give you an idea of the climate, i vaguely recall an argument a couple of years ago about whether the parliament, when it was visiting up there, should have to wear suits or not. they decided not to, in the end.*


*i am not sure about the specifics of this at all, and it might just be the figment of my imagination, but regardless, it gives you an idea of the place

[OnYourBike]

Melbourne isn't hot at all. No humidity at all and rarely over 90 really.