Checking one off the Bucket List!

Well we arrived in Byron Bay around 8:30am Friday, August 21, 2009. It was a day that I will always remember! We found our YHA hostel; checked in; and then the moment I had been so excited for since I decided that I was going to study abroad in Australia finally arrived.

I knew ever since I arrived that I wanted to go away somewhere for my birthday. After lots of research and talking with travel agents I decided that Byron Bay would be the perfect place. Thus, being because it is known to have some of the most amazing sights for skydiving! Yes read correctly, skydiving was on my Bucket List! Therefore at 9:15am, Skydive Byron Bay Company came and picked Kim, Amber, and I up for one of the most amazing experiences that I will probably ever experience! We took about a 15 minute car ride to the place. During this time we were supposed to be filling out the forms and signing saying that if we didn’t land right, the parachute didn’t open, or yada yada yada would happen that we wouldn’t sue. Oh yeah we also had to sign a form saying where we would like our body sent in case of death. Well we thought we had signed all the forms correctly so we started taking funny pictures of us with the papers and “signing away our lives”. Well we arrived at the company and well go figure us three girls couldn’t follow simple directions because we had missed about 3 whole pages of signatures! Oh well, we could have done worse things like not filled it out at all!

I know it sounds silly, but after we signed away our lives, we paid the company so we could jump out of the plane at 14,000 feet. Of course after taking our money they agreed to get us all geared up for the jump. They handed each of us parachute pants to put on over our clothes and a body harness. After getting all geared up it was time for some instructions. One of the jumpers/instructors came over and had each of us get on the floor. Then in his thick accent he told us that the key to falling correctly was to be in a “big banana” shape. Therefore, after a demonstration he had us all practicing arching our legs, head, and back on the floor to be in the “big banana”. After mastering the banana shape we moved outside where we were shown how to push our legs under the plane and start the banana shape when we are leaving the airplane. Right after the instruction my tandem instructor grabbed my hand and shoved me into the plane all the way up to the front of the plane. As I later realized this was because I was going to be the last one jumping out of the plane. Once everyone was in the propellers revved to life and we began our take off.

The decent towards the beautiful sky was amazing! I could see the little town of Byron Bay (20,000 people), the swells of the blue Pacific ocean below, the light colored sandy beaches, the most Eastern point of Australia, Byron Bay light house, and the gorgeous countryside that the Lord created. Truly beautiful sights! The instructors kept asking each of us how we were doing, lots of thumbs up, high-fives, pound-its, and huge smiles were passed amongst us in the plane. Not a single one of us were scared to jump so the atmosphere was really just full of excitement!

Finally after about 5 minutes of climbing, we had reached the “drop zone”… They opened up the side door and the next thing I knew people were just disappearing out of the side of the plane! I said goodbye to Amber and Kim, then just a few seconds later my instructor was telling me to make my way over to the door. I pushed my feet under the plane and arched myself into the “big banana” shape and then with my okay we fell towards the Earth. I am not 100 percent sure, but I felt like I did a front somersault before we stabilized in the air. The air was so cold that it felt like little icicles hitting my face. I was hardly able to notice that though when the rush of falling over 120 miles per hour towards the surface of the Earth and the breath taking view before me was so captivating. It was one of the best gifts that God has ever placed in my life! We free fell for about 60 seconds (10,000 feet) before we had to pull the chords for the parachute to come out at 4,000 feet. Parachuting was just as fun as the free falling. We did some circling around and goofed off some. At this point I was able to see Kim and Amber floating around preparing for landing. Lucky me I was last so technically I was in the air the longest and got to absorb more beautiful scenery! After about 5 minutes it was time to land so I pulled my legs up to my chest and we slid in on our butts on the ground.

Unfortunately, that was the end of one of my Bucket List activities, but I know I will always remember that experience. More importantly now I am determined to get my family to do it with me sometime. It could take my Dad some convincing because he sees no point in jumping out of a perfectly working airplane, and well then there is Lindsay with her fear of heights, but I think I might be able to convince them. Except I would like to be somewhere a lot prettier than Illinois when I get them to do it… so I guess that means another trip will be in the future!