Hey there, so yeah, I guess this blog entry is a bit late...so since there is a lot to tell I will try and fit it into a reasonable amount of reading.
So it seems like so long ago that I went on mid semester break vacation...I guess it was, since we left April 13th, almost a month ago. Oops!
This break was from April 10th until April 27th, so it was a nice long break after a lot of work at the end of the semester. I went all along the East coast with three of my housemates (yes, it was three girls and me). It was very fun, and jam packed with activities. We started off in the Gold Coast, and went to an amusement park and water park (DreamWorld and White Water World), which were very fun. DreamWorld had this one ride that was just one of those "pick you up and drop you" rides, the tallest I had ever seen. So obviously, with my fear of heights, I didn't go on the first time around. But, later in the day when Julie decided to go again, I thought I would join her; I mean, I was going to go sky diving in less than two weeks, I thought it might help to prepare me. So...scariest ride I've ever been on, lol. You sit down with your feet dangling and nothing below you as you are raised up to what seems like way too high. Seriously, when I was up there I was thinking "How are we possibly still going up? We are so high! This can't be right!" So yeah, you finally get to the top, and then you just sit there for a whole minute. The view was actually quite nice, there are mountains all around and you see for miles in every direction. And then, after sitting up at the top of this tower peacefully, I felt something change; we didn't start dropping, but I knew we were about to. I got that feeling where you know what's about to happen is going to scare the shi* out of you, and there's nothing you can do about it. And then it began...just falling...faster, and faster, and faster...there's no way you should be going that fast, it all happens so quickly. And just when you get to the top speed and you are about to hit the ground, the brakes kick in, and your once lifted legs fall back down below you as you try to regain your sense of gravity. At that point, it was the scariest, most fun ride I had ever been on...maybe sky diving was going to be a bit scarier than I thought? Lol.
So after those two days at the parks we had some beach days. We went para sailing, jet skiing, boating, and just spent some time laying on the beach. Then we went to Brisbane, went to the Australia Zoo, got to pet some Kangaroo's, watched a tiger show...etc.
Then we went up to Cairns, and went to the Great Barrier Reef, I went on two scuba dives, and hung out all day on a massive, multi-million dollar boat.
We also went on a rain forest trip...it was sort of a bus day tour. We stopped at a lot of cool photo spots, went croc spotting on a river boat, swam in a river (not the same one as with the crocs, lol), and also went to a nice beach at the end of the day.
White water rafting and sky diving were definitely the highlights of the trip; they were the most fun, exciting things I have ever done. We spent all day rafting on Tully River, which has some very large rapids. I have some of the pictures on facebook, so check them out. And sky diving was definitely the craziest thing I have ever done. I don't know who ever thought of sky diving first, but they are crazy! Lol. I was the last one to jump out of our group, which made it even more suspenseful. So in the plane it was Julie, Lindsay, Lauren, some random guy around our age, myself, and obviously all of the dive instructors strapped to our backs. So we fly up there, and as we get higher up in the air, my nervousness also rises. It was the scariest, most exciting feeling I had ever felt to know that I was about to jump out of a plane at 14,000 feet. When we were at cloud level I thought we were somewhere around where we would be jumping at...nope, only 5,000 feet. WHAT?!?!?!? 9,000 feet more? How is that possible, we are so high up! Yeah....haha. When we finally get to the 14,000 foot mark, everyone is screaming, I can't tell if it's excitement, terror, adrenaline, or maybe a combination of all of them, all I know is that I was bugging out, lol. I had never been so scared yet looking forward to something so much in my entire life; such a weird, awesome combination of emotions. So Lindsay went out first..."OH MY GOD!" is all I could muster up, and this continued as every person jumped out of the plane. Wait...everyone is gone...it's just me and my instructor...you mean I have to do that now? AHH!!!! So we start moving towards the open door (and when I say we, I mean my instructor was basically carrying me forward, lol). Ahhh! I'm not ready for this! Just give me one minute! Ahhh, we're at the door! Lean my head back and cross my arms? OK...I think I'm ready...AHHH!!!!!!! Haha, falling out of that plane was the weirdest, most exhilarating, adrenaline boosting stunt I have ever pulled. You aren't attached to anything, you're just falling...for an entire minute...at 120 Mph...yeahhhhhh. The free fall was amazing, everything is happening so fast its like you almost don't realize what's going on around you. You try to talk and say "OH MY GOD!" or "WHOAAA!!!!" but nothing comes out, I guess you lose the ability to hear at those speeds. So after the minute of free fall you begin parachuting, which goes on for about 5 minutes. This is your opportunity to try and save your ear drums and wipe off the drool that you could not control coming out of your mouth, haha. So after a few seconds of repair and clean up, you can enjoy the ride. We actually jumped over a beach, so we were over the ocean the entire time; the views were amazing. I got to control the parachute for a while, and we did spins and turns and stops in the air, it was very fun. I purchased a video and pictures of the whole thing, which I have posted on facebook. Unfortunately the video will not load (it was going to take somewhere around 490 hours....) so when I come home, I would love to show the video to anyone who wants to see it.
Hmm...also, my sister, Rachel just got done visiting for the week. She came on the 2nd, and left yesterday, the 8th. We went all over Sydney, shopping, the pubs, clubs, beaches, the rotating restaurant tower, the Museum of Contemporary Art...we did a whole bunch of stuff...which is another excuse for why I haven't written this blog sooner. But now I have written it :-)
Well...I think that's enough for now. Thanks for reading
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