This was published 7 years ago
Eight amazing adventures from Australia you don't have to travel far for
By Ben Groundwater
It's a trap that travellers often fall into: the idea that to have a true adventure, you need to be far away from home. You have to go somewhere like Africa or Central America to really put yourself out there, to feel the rush of the unknown, to experience something life-changing and different.
But that's not true. If you thirst for adventure, there's plenty right on your doorstep. Some of it is in Australia, and some is hosted by our close neighbours. But you don't need to travel any more than three or four hours to find some of the most exciting, remote and interesting adventures on the planet.
Hike up Mount Yasur, Vanuatu
Solomon Islands.Credit: Getty Images
It's not really the hike that's the adventure. Thanks to a car park just near the summit, you'll only need to walk about 15 minutes to get to the top of this live volcano on Tanna Island in Vanuatu. The real adventure is getting to that car park: the flight in a small plane from Port Vila, and the bumpy car ride down dirt tracks that takes you from the airport across the entire island, past small villages and through rugged mountain passes, to the base of Mount Yasur. And the view from the top, into the bubbling, booming crater of a live volcano, is something else.
Travel time: It's a three-hour flight from Sydney to Port Vila, then another hour-long flight to Tanna.
Adventure rating: Four stars
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Dive Milne Bay, PNG
Those who are fans of the underwater world are spoiled for choice in these parts, but perhaps the best and least-visited area for scuba-divers is Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea. Using the dive resort Tawali as a base, you can access some absolutely amazing and pretty much untouched dive sites, places such as Cobb's Cliff, Wahoo Point and Sponge Heaven that should be on everyone's bucket list.
Travel time: It takes three hours to fly from Brisbane to Port Moresby, then another hour to get to Alotau in Milne Bay.
Adventure rating: Three stars
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Hike the Kokoda Track, PNG
This journey is becoming so popular that it's now almost a rite of passage for Australians, to follow in the footsteps of our troops in World War II along this muddy, steep 96-kilometre track through eastern Papua New Guinea. This adventure is no walk in the park: it's a hard slog through wild, dense forest, a journey of up to seven days on foot that gives you a small window into what the troops went through.
Travel time: Port Moresby is a three-hour flight from Brisbane; reaching the Kokoda Track requires another short charter flight.
Adventure rating: Five stars
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Cycle the Queen Charlotte Track, NZ
There's mountain-biking, and there's mountain-biking. There's leisurely pedals along wide, gentle paths, and there's tackling New Zealand's Queen Charlotte Track, a two-day, 70-kilometre trail at the top of the South Island. The Queen Charlotte boasts the longest stretch of single-track in the country, and is rated grades three and four, which means inexperienced riders will find themselves getting off and walking up some of the steeper and more slippery sections. The experience is well worth it though.
Travel time: It takes three hours to fly from Sydney to Wellington, and the ferry across to Picton takes another three hours.
Adventure rating: Four stars
See also: The worst thing about air travel
Hang out in the Solomon Islands
Here's the great thing about the Sollies: to have an adventure, you don't really have to do anything. You just have to be there. Travel in the Solomon Islands is basic at best, with no high-rise hotels or cocktails by pools. Instead it's rustic guesthouses and untouched natural attractions, World War II wrecks strewn across jungle floors, pristine reefs with no one else around, and the sort of surf breaks that would have boardriders salivating.
Travel time: It's a three-and-a-quarter-hour flight from Brisbane to Honiara.
Adventure rating: Five stars
Raft the Franklin River, Tasmania
Just down there in Taswegia, you can have one of the truly great eco-tourism adventures: an eight-day whitewater-rafting trip down the Franklin River. This journey takes you through some of Australia's most beautiful wilderness, which you'll be appreciating from inside a rubber raft, or under a simple tarpaulin at night. Everything taken into the national park must also be taken out, giving you the feeling you're the first person to ever set foot in this pristine area.
Travel time: It takes an hour and 15 minutes to fly from Melbourne to Hobart, or two hours from Sydney. It's then a short bus ride to the river.
Adventure rating: Four stars
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Dive the Yongala wreck, QLD
You could travel a long way to see some of the world's most famous wrecks: the Odyssey in Honduras, the YO-257 in Hawaii, and the Thistlegorm in the Red Sea. Or, you could just fly up to Townsville and see the SS Yongala, a 109-metre luxury passenger ship that sank off the coast of Queensland in 1911. She now lies in 20-30 metres of water, covered in coral and surrounded by marine life, making this one of the world's best wreck dives.
Travel time: Townsville is a two-hour flight from Brisbane.
Adventure rating: Three stars
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Watch the Baining Fire Dancers, PNG
You've never seen anything like this before. You might think you have to go to Africa to see tribal culture at its most unaffected – and, frankly, bizarre – but it's just up there in PNG. From the town of Kokopo in East New Britain, you drive up into the mountains for a few hours before arriving at a village in the dead of night. There, you see something amazing: Baining tribesmen, clad in huge masks, performing a fire-dancing ceremony, running out of the darkness to kick and dance in a huge bonfire. Amazing.
Travel time: Port Moresby is a three-hour flight from Brisbane, and it takes two more hours to fly to Kokopo.
Adventure rating: Five stars
What's your favourite adventure destination close to home?
Email: b.groundwater@fairfaxmedia.com.au
Instagram: instagram.com/bengroundwater
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