There’s nothing like saving up the adrenaline smashing activities until the last day is there! We’ve had a couple of days of really interesting things to do but nothing that really raises the heartbeat by more than about 20%.

Today however would be different. No more messing about, this is the stuff that sorts out the men from the boys – I mean it is supposed to be an adventure tour isn’t it!

First stop Skydiving. Skydive Cairns are to be our hosts for the stomach-churning adventure and we rock up to their office in the centre of Cairns for the pre-jump brief and to find out who we’ll be paired up with as our Jump Master.

My man of the morning is Max, a parachutist of 15 years who has made well over 15,000 jumps and obviously has an exemplary safety record (we just don’t talk about the five close shaves he’s also experienced!). He runs me through the procedures involved; how I should tuck my head back and my legs away when it’s our turn to sit in the door, when to spread-eagle in the air on the way down…and when it’s almost over – how to land.

I feel in a pretty privileged position really, having jumped a month ago with Skydive Airlie, but there’s a couple of pretty apprehensive faces wandering around the office!

We all get into our harnesses, sign our lives away and then make our way to the minibus waiting outside the office…sitting there like the vehicle which will take you to meet your maker!

As we pull onto the airfield our awaiting plane is already fired up and ready to go, there’s no going back now. I mean there’s pride at stake here. Forming an orderly, if bouncy-adrenaline-filled queue we await our fate…

One by one our Jump Masters load us into the plane, there are seven of us jumping so that’s 14 people in total. We clamber inside the plane and take our places between, the person in who our future now lies, thighs. This is all very cosy!

As we taxi down the runway some of the Korean media are talking to each other in Korean. I find out later that the editor of AB-ROAD magazine turned and told his cameraman “I love you!” Classic.

The scenery below is stunning as we make our way south-east, away from the city and out over the rainforest once more. We spot our some of our locations from the day before, landslides on the hills and churning waterfalls off in the distance. It’s a very different view to that of the Whitsundays, but equally as beautiful.

14,000 feet above the ground doesn’t take that long to get to and before we know it the roller door has been opened, the rush of the cold air fills the cabin and the first victim, sorry jumper, has their feet out of the door. Then before you can blink – GONE!

It’s surprisingly quick with these guys you know. No time to say you’re pulling out which is probably a damn good thing. I’m fourth up and before I can look down we’re falling down at terminal velocity towards the ground.

220 km/h of face distorting wind is rushing against my face and body and the only thing I can do is laugh and love it. The feeling never ever changes no matter how many times you do this – adrenaline is coursing through my veins and the natural high it causes is totally addictive.

This time there’s around a minute of freefall but it passes by oh so quickly when you’re tumbling at that speed. In fact it really does feel as though it’s over in a matter of seconds before that crutch-jerking tug on the harness and the entire freefall is over.

Once I’m hanging under canopy floating gently to the ground, Max offers me the controls of the parachute and I get a chance to steer this baby. Scary thought I know but it’s so cool being able to fly yourself down to the ground and towards the landing zone.

We pull full circles at speed and eventually come close to our landing site before Max takes over, gives the last instruction to lift my feet and with a fast approach we make it down onto terra firma once more.

Incredible – absolutely amazing – “can I go again please!”

Seeing the other guys come down to earth is wicked too, I can hear Juweon before I see his face – he’s had a great time too and shouts and screams as he approaches the ground.

The most incredible transformation has take place with another of the group too – Choong Keol Lee, the editor of GQ Korea, was a pretty quiet guy before this jump. This has brought him out of his shell totally. From total fear to total enjoyment and a huge number of very funny jokes too. I like this guy a lot.

Remember this is supposed to be an Adventure Tour so there’s no time for sitting about. No sooner are we through with our jump then it’s back to the office to collect our bags and onto the next activity…

Well strictly speaking we did have lunch first and it was back to one of my favourite haunts in the city, Café China and its ever-welcoming host Harry. Treated to his very special function room we all tucked in a spread worthy of the finest Chinese Emperor, finished off with a very different but tasty mango jelly. You have to try it!

With our final mouthful just about down the itinerary kicked in once more – we were off to the final installment. White-water Rafting.

Now I know it’s not the most impressive of all the rafting waters in Queensland, but with the rain the surrounding hills have had over the last few weeks, the Barron River is still putting down some serious white water. Enough to challenge those first time rafters amongst the group…and there are a few!

Raging Thunder are again our hosts for this our last adrenaline-filled activity and we jump in their minibus, complete with trailer and rafts, which takes us on the hour long drive up the valley.

The Korean media group all head off to one raft with their translator – there are certain things that you have to understand when rafting! I join up with another group of English speaking tourists led by Ash the guide. Once we’ve kitted ourselves out with lifejacket, helmet and slap on the sunscreen it’s down to the water’s edge to prove we can swim, float or at least not drown. The large yellow raft is big enough to fit eight paddlers and a guide in, there’s holes all over the bottom of it but fear not. They are there to let water out…not in.

The paddling drill is then given to us with a number of different instructions necessary to take on the rapids of varying intensity. They range from “paddle” to “PADDLE!!”, there’s “get down” and finally “GET DOWN, PADDLES UP”.

These are all in order of desperation as Ash our guide decides how we should be approaching, or attacking, the next rapid.

We do pretty well to start off with, riding the first and second of the falls with relative ease and then one of the big ones approaches – The Rooster Tail. So called when the water is flowing like it is, as the spouting water looks just like a chicken’s tail.

On approach it all looks pretty good, it’s only when we drop onto the beast that the raft is flung up in the air, all of us grab onto the centre ropes and get as low as possible. As we smash into the water below the raft almost flips but we just manage to hold on and save a wet ending happening.

Further downstream we’re not so lucky and get sucked back into one of the falls we’ve just dropped down. This is known as surfing! The raft is pulled right under the cascading water and immediately fills right up but these things are designed to do just that and instead of sinking, just sits there and with me being right at the front, I bear the brunt of the torrent!

We struggle to get free and in the end Ash has to jump out with a rope attached to him to act as a human-anchor, thereby giving enough resistance to pull the raft free from its temporary parking spot. No such luck.

So now it’s my turn to help out. In an effort to add more resistance Ash asks me to jump ship too, holding onto the line he’s clinging onto downstream. I take a leap of faith into the white water and join him gasping for breath 10 metres away on the end of the line. Eventually our efforts are rewarded as the raft breaks free from its watery pit-stop and we clamber back onboard.

Another fifteen minutes later and it’s all drawing to an end. The river levels out, the rapids disappear and we take the opportunity to bath in the waters, relaxing the tired muscles we’ve used all afternoon.

What a cracking way to finish the tour! It really was the activity I enjoyed the most and would love to do it all over again – but with some bigger rapids maybe!

The night was taken up with devouring one of the best steaks I’ve had in a long time courtesy of the Salt House Restaurant. Yum yum.