American Women Get Down When Down Under

LOS ANGELES (TNA) – A trio of American women know how to get down when they go Down Under.

Luckily, their wild encounters are caught on film for the world to see.

The women – Renee Intlekofer, Shaina Fewell and Bridgetta Tomarchio – are the stars of “Project MyWorld,” a reality series that begins its second season Oct. 1 on DIRECTV.

Bridgetta, Renee and Shaina hang out with natives of New Zealand on 'Project MyWorld.'

The show follows the threesome as they travel through a country or region trying to hook up with people they’ve met through MySpace.com. The series visited Europe its first season, and this time they’re trolling through Australia and New Zealand.

Each lady has a different mission: Renee wants to meet the local guys in hopes of finding her true love; Shaina wants to find undiscovered indie rock bands; and Bridgetta is an adrenalin junkie who wants to experience each culture’s unique form of extreme sports.

Of the three, perhaps Renee has the hardest job. It’s not as though finding love is difficult for an attractive young woman, it’s finding too much of it. She goes on eight dates this season, and admits she connected with more than one guy.

Renee prescreened each one by studying his profile on MySpace.com, then contacted them and asked for a hook-up. Not surprisingly, nobody turned her down, and she had a great time on almost all her dates – except one.

“There was one guy we met who was a real character,” she laughs. “He was the craziest person, really eccentric, and shorter than I expected. He was also very metrosexual and not attractive to me at all, but he was in love with me.”

Although some guys might think a woman who contacted them from half-way across the world may just be looking for an international booty call, Renee says the topic of sex never came up in conversation.

“I never asked them if they thought they were going to get lucky,” she says. “But they were all awesome people.”

However, it’s possible the guys shied away from making a pass because of the camera crew, or perhaps because of the tiny window of time allotted for each encounter.

“We’re only in each place for three days,” she laments. “So if you like someone and have to leave, that makes it really difficult.”

Shaina had it slightly easier. Since she was more interested in music than love, she didn’t get the same catty looks from the local ladies.

“I’m definitely into indie bands,” Shaina said. “And we saw a lot of unsigned bands. The funny thing is, half of these bands have been on TV and radio without having a record contract.”

Still, her search for musical talent helped the trio meet all sorts of interesting guys. For instance, they once partied with the members of a band called Heavy Thresher, and ended up ballroom dancing with one of them whose idea of fashion was wearing fishnets in public.

While Shaina was trying to get the buzz on the hottest bands, Bridgetta got her buzz in other ways – like when she accidentally ate a glowstick.

“We were at a show and I wasn’t paying attention,” she admits. “I chewed on a glowstick and it exploded and my tongue got all numb for a few hours. I definitely had to chase it with a beer in order to get the taste out of my mouth.”

As the adrenalin junkie of the group, Bridgetta made sure her friends’ hearts were pumping in all sorts of ways, like participating in a race called “The Undie 500,” where they ran around in their panties in freezing weather, or when they rolled down a hill in a giant plastic ball filled with water.

But the piece de resistance for Bridgetta may be when she and her friends bungee-jumped off a structure known as the Sky Tower, where the sport was supposedly invented.

In the process, the women made countless memories (and picked up a few bruises), but came away most enthusiastic about doing a third season, possibly in Northern Europe.

They also learned a lot, especially about the differences between Australia and New Zealand.

Like many Americans, Renee didn’t realize there were many cultural distinctions between Oz and Kiwi Country prior to her visit. But that assumption smacked her right in the face when she and her pals arrived in New Zealand.

“Kiwis are more conservative,” Renee says. “We were not allowed in certain areas. We were asked to leave because we were a little too crazy. The Aussies are laid back, and the Kiwis are definitely more uptight.”

Especially the ladies.

“We were fun and flirty,” she adds, “and a few times the local women gave us dirty looks.”