The first crazy thing I got to do was bungee jumping. We were in the rainforest in Cairns and up in all the trees was this big tower! It was about a 150ft jump into a mini lake at the bottom. Now, considering I am a huge adrenaline junky, I thought I wouldn't have a problem with this at all; however, it was much scarier and more exhilarating than I thought! To get to the top we had to climb a bunch of stairs which turned into one of the prettiest views I've ever seen. Once we were above tree level, there are views for miles of Australian coastline on one side, and big rainforest mountains on the other; it was unreal. Once at the top, I was strapped in, and told to shuffle to the end of the ledge; looking straight ahead was gorgeous, but looking down looked WAY higher than 150ft. I was so excited and nervous all at the same time. I kept thinking "this will be awesome but I'm crazy for throwing myself off a ledge."
When I jumped, I told the instructor that I'd be fine touching the water. "Touching" was the key word here that he missed. Everyone that jumped before me that "touched" the water went elbow deep in a streamline position; basically just their hands got wet. After I took the plunge, the instructor somehow managed for me to go bellybutton deep in the water. In my mind, the shock of falling was quite a rush, but after the dunk of the century and yelling a few choice words, I felt like I was on an entirely new level. When I jolted up the first time, I was in such shock from the dunk that I couldn't comprehend what happened. Once safely on the boat below, I realized how awesome the jump was, even though my hands were still shaking. I would 100% do it again, and I'm actually hoping to jump 3 times higher if I ever make it to New Zealand!!!
After jumping I decided, "why stop now?" The next morning we got up bright and early to drive two hours to Mission Beach. I was about to do something I've wanted to do since I was about twelve... SKYDIVE. I would have skydived anywhere in the U.S., anytime I would have had the opportunity; let's just say that I'm really glad I waited. Spectacular doesn't quite seem to describe how beautiful Mission Beach was.
There were a bunch of us on the trip, so it was a very long day of waiting. I was in group five and it took about five to six hours before it was our turn to head up. It was also just over 100 degrees with lots and lots of humidity. It was completely worth the wait!! I thought that I would be more freaked out skydiving than bungee jumping, but I realized jumping over a ledge was fairly easy to grasp in my mind and jumping out of a plane was not something I could wrap my head around. There were seven girls in my group, and I was the third one to jump. We traveled up in this tiny little plane with, what looked like, a plastic garage door on the side.. the exit. On our way up, I asked about how high we were when we were even with the clouds; I got an answer of 7,000ft... only halfway. That was about the time I started to get a little nervous. Considering it was pretty cloudy, when we were flying high above the big, white balls of fluff, I kept thinking of flying commercially in an airplane; I always used to wonder what it would be like to play in clouds so thick they look like mountains, and now I get to. In no time, we were above the beach and it was time to go!!
The "garage door" opened, group one went, and then the group right in front of me disappeared. Just like that, they rolled out of the plane and were gone. Considering I was next, the thoughts that had originally been going through my mind were erased and I was in a state of disbelief. My instructor said "go-time" and we stood at the edge of the plane; next thing I know, we flipped out (literally did a flip) and I was falling. If I ever thought I'd get a chance to fly, this falling is probably what it would feel like. We were traveling at speeds around 200km per hour, but even though the clouds kept getting closer and closer, it felt like I was floating; looking back (and watching the video), it must have been in my head because we were DEFINITELY falling and it was awesome!!
Once we broke through the clouds and finished our 60 second free-fall, the most picture-perfect scene developed. The water was gorgeous, the beach and coastline were beautiful, and all I could do was look around as much as humanly possible in order to not miss something. The parachute came out and we floated the rest of the way to the beach. The whole experience was only about 5 minutes, but it was the most exciting and fulfilling experience I've ever had. My biggest "crazy" goal was accomplished and I absolutely LOVED it!!!!
I may try some crazy things, but I will always remember the way I feel doing them... it's completely worth it.
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