Thrills & skills

14-year-old rafferty laight chats about the unique, useful, and sometimes thrilling skills that can be learned through travel.

Let me preface this by saying that I love school. It’s great. It’s the place we learn to learn, and teaches us heaps of useful skills like reading, writing and numeracy (though TBH, I’m still yet to work out the point of algebra). Plus, it gives us a chance to make friends and connections.

But if I’m being totally honest, I think experiencing the world and learning about various cultures has taught me way more than a classroom ever could. I’m not just talking about the geography, geology and history that seems so much more real and relevant when you’re actually standing on the incredible sites built by our ancestors, and where worldchanging events evolved. And I’m not talking about the science and engineering lessons we learn in real-time (who hasn’t wondered how an airplane works when they’re 30,000 feet up) or even what I’ve learned about cultures and people through my explorations.

Because, though I’m grateful for all these things, travelling has also taught me to enjoy experiences over things, to leave my comfort zone and to never take nature for granted, as well as a bunch of unexpected skills that have proved both fun and useful.

Like improving my drama skills at Khayelitsha Art School and Rehabilitation Centre in South Africa, alongside some of the most talented kids I’ve ever met. And there was the time I learned sword skills and etiquette from a real Japanese samurai master, which will be incredibly useful if I should ever find myself up against a bunch of naughty ninjas. As a bonus, I’ve also learned how to construct a spear from a tree, stones, ochre and tree sap, under the instruction of Indigenous elders. So, in the admittedly unlikely event of that ninja attack, I should be able to fashion my own weapon and deliver my attack in dramatic style.

Over the past few months travel has continued to deliver an education, including teaching me vital survival skills. Who knew you could enjoy a weekend at an awesome holiday park, swimming in pools, hooning in go-karts and generally running wild, while learning how to survive in the actual wild?

At the Bear Grylls Survival Academy at

BIG4 NRMA Halls Gap Holiday Park in the Grampians, I learned how to navigate, hunt, forage, and make shelter and fire, while hundreds of kangaroos and emus watched on. By the end of the weekend, I totally reckon I could make a decent life for myself should I ever decide to go full hermit – though with all due respect to Bear, I’ll pass on drinking my own pee.

Another epic thing I learned recently, which wouldn’t have been the same at home, is how to scuba dive. It wasn’t only amazing because the lessons took place surrounded by some of the most gorgeous marine life in the world, in the waters off Plantation Island resort in Fiji.

What made it so much more of a life lesson was that even as mind-boggling as it was to explore the underwater world, thanks to the resort’s resident marine biologists, it provided a life-changing opportunity for me to learn first-hand about the importance of marine conservation. It’s a lesson I’ll never forget.

But I’ve totally got my eye on even more epic learning experiences to add on to my next adventures...

Learn to wrestle like a sumo in Tokyo japan

Kids over 10 can learn the art sumo in a real dohyo (sumo ring) at RAIEN. Former Japanese sumo wrestlers and translators teach the basics of the sport, from how to wear the belt to the lumbering sumo stomp. There’s even a tournament at the end. And hopefully sumosize eating cos I totes reckon I’d win that.

Learn music in Vienna austria

How about a tour visiting memorable places of music in Vienna, one of my favourite cities in the world, followed by five days at Vienna’s Summer Music Academy? Musicians of all levels can enjoy masterclasses of Mozart’s techniques, as well as music composition. The experience concludes with you taking to the Viennese stage, like a (classical) rock star.

Learn Muay Thai in Chiang Mai thailand

Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, at

Por Silaphai Gym in Chiang Mai you can enjoy a week-long Muay Thai course. What an epic way to experience a super cool aspect of Thai culture, while also getting a major workout in. Win-win.

Learn to surf in Hawaii

Sure, I could just run down to Manly Beach and hit up one of the surf schools there, but how sick would it be to learn to surf on the waves of Waikiki, the birthplace of the sport? The team at Gone Surfing Hawaii will soon have you up and riding in the wake of surfing pioneer, Duke Kahanamoku.