Hair-raising challenge will take Walcha local on whirlwind journey around the world

Jake Hunt has set out to ride the best roller coaster in every single country on Earth.

When the Leader caught up with him, he had just completed the Australian leg of his challenge at Seaworld, and was heading across the ditch to New Zealand.

"I started working in the amusement park industry and fell in love with it," he said.

"During that, I also started my Youtube channel, Maloney's Coasters, chatting about different roller coasters around the world. And those two things came together.

"Then this crazy idea popped into my head."

The route for the challenge is not set in stone, because "not every country has a roller coaster", and many come and go in the "blink of an eye".

"It is a little bit hard to plan it all in advance," he said.

"But I have broken the world down into continents, and this year I will go to Europe and start ticking those countries off the list.

"After I tick off Europe, I will move onto the next, and the team behind me is voting on which roller coasters I ride and where I should go."

Not wanting to ride the same roller coaster each time, the 25-year-old will seek out "unique coasters".

"There is one I'm really interested in riding in Spain. It was built in the early 20^th century, and instead of having the tracks up on supports like a normal roller coaster, it was dug into an old trough," he said.

"It goes down behind people's houses and has a scenic wall on the ocean side."

Mr Hunt said he's looking forward to Vietnam where he will ride the Roaring Timber, a coaster made entirely from wood.

But he is also keen to ride 'niche' coasters, that are off the beaten path.

"In New Zealand, they have a lot of little and different coasters, but I have also been invited to ride a roller coaster built in a gentleman's backyard," he said.

"It looks like he has done such a good job of it as well. It is a fully functional steel roller coaster."

Growing-up in Walcha, Mr Hunt was a bit removed from the world of roller coasters.

"We are five or six hours away from your closest theme park or roller coasters," he said.

"I feel like a bit of a fish out of water, flung into this world of roller coasters."

But, since starting his YouTube channel, he has built quite a community of followers.

"There are a lot more people like me who love going to explore and experience new roller coasters," he said.

As for what lays ahead, Mr Hunt said it would be his dream to build the first roller coaster in Walcha.