In 2002 I took a year off work to go travelling around Australia and New Zealand. One of the popular routes to travel in Australia is along the East coast so shortly after arriving in Sydney I got straight back on the plane up to Cairns, for the beginning of my journey.

Flying into Cairns was amazing, an experience I'll never forget. It was the first time I'd been somewhere tropical and it was just like being in a James Bond Film.

After Cairns the next stop was Magnetic Island. It was named by Captain Cook who thought the ships compass went funny when he sailed by in 1770. This is one of my favourite places in Australia. With a small population and lots of coast line it was easy to find a secluded bay all to myself.

Another popular spot in Queensland is the Whitsunday Islands. The best way to explore the islands is by boat. And what better boat to take than 'Condor', the most successful racing yatch ever, having won ever major competition twice. Now retired from racing it spends its days cruising around with naked chicks sunbathings on it!

I was travelling on the Oz Experience bus. Much better than a normal bus as they take you on detours to visit some far out places. Here we stopped the night in Dingo, a cattle farm the size of Devon.

After the dry dusty cattle farm I needed the beach again, so off I went to Great Kepple Island. Another popular holiday resort with Australians. There's one hotel and one campsite, no prizes for guessing where I stayed!

Frazer Island was next on the list. The largest island in the world made entirely on sand. Over the years a rain forrest has grown in the middle making it truely unique and has been listed as a World Heritage area. The only way to explore the island is by 4x4 so with a group of friends we hired a Landcruser and spent 3 days there.

After spending the last few weeks chilling out I needed a bit of andrenalin through my veins again. So I got in a plane flew to 14,000ft and jumped out!

Every year Surfer Paridise is turned into a race track that the American Indy cars race around. By some stroke of luck I happened to be passing through when it was on. Fast cars and more naked chicks, my kind of place! After the Indy left I learnt to surf, well what else was you expecting!

Byron Bay a surfing mecca and meeting place for alternative cultures since the 1960's. Theres was lots to do to quench my thist for danger, Down hill mountain biking and Handgliding are just some of the activities I did.

After I returned to Syndey I found they'd named a town after me on the outskirts. I thought that was jolly good of them!

I hope you enjoyed my much condensed tour of the East coast. I highly recommend doing it yourself if you have the chance.

Richard