The most extreme weekend ever.

Friday:

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is how I began the weekend of March 30th through April 1st. And yes, it was extremely extreme. Some would even say gnarly. All I could say was, "AHHHHHHH!!!!" but we'll get into that.

So I had known I was going skydiving for a couple weeks now. But it wasn't until the morning of March 30th that I actually realized what I was about to do. The cool thing about Australia is that you're usually so busy doing other stuff, that you don't have time to dwell on what's happening in the future. Which is nice if you have a test or something. But when I woke up at 5:30am to catch the bus that took us downtown to catch the other bus that drove us to Wollongong, I actually started to think about it. To be honest, I wasn't too nervous, but when the five other friends you're going with are freaking out like six year olds who just discovered coffee, well it can get into your head.

After the two hour bus ride from downtown Sydney to the skydiving place in Wollongong, we got off the bus and went inside this little shack where you have to hand in all your paperwork and sign up for the day. I figured that we'd take a hour long class or briefing or something before we jumped. Instead we jumped into our harnesses, met the instructors who would be strapped to our backs, and jumped into another van to head to the airport. The cool part was that as we were doing this, other jumpers were parachuting into the field right outside the building, so we had a brief glimpse of what we were in for.

We had worked out that I was gonna be the last one to jump on the way to the airport, so when we got there I was the first one to get in the plane. Now I was starting to get excited. Before it seemed surreal, but now I was actually getting in the plane. I sat facing the back of the plane with everyone except the pilot and my instructor in front of me. Next thing I know we're taking off and climbing fast. After about ten minutes I look down and assume that we're pretty close to where we're going to jump, 14,000 feet off the ground. I of course then look at the altimeter and think that I'm reading it wrong, but I'm not. 3,000 feet and climbing. This is going to be interesting.

So then the moment is here. The red light turns yellow. Yellow light turns green. Door opens and Chris falls out of the plane. Then Cody. Then Adam. Catherine. Michelle. Now it's my turn. Surprisingly, watching my friends fall out of a plane in front of me hadn't freaked me out. I move closer to the door. I look down. Yup.

I'm a little ashamed to say I closed my eyes for the first two seconds. I curl like a banana like I was taught and keep my hands in tight. Then the guy strapped to my back (or am I strapped to his front...) taps me on the shoulder and I open my eyes and throw my arms out. After the initial jump, I wasn't scared, but the adrenaline from the wind coming at you that fast is just insane. You can't really focus on anything other than the world around you. Then it's over. Parachute opens and as I take the reins and fly through a cloud I really am able to take in my surroundings. Ocean on my right, beach on my left. If you ever see me back home, ask about the video I got from skydiving. That's the only way I can really show how awesome it was.

Saturday: I honestly forget what happened, I'm pretty sure I was productive and that in itself is pretty extreme for being in Australia.

Sunday: Wake up at 4am to catch the 4:30am bus to central station. Run down the the bus stop. Realize that I incorrectly deciphered daylight savings in Australia and it's actually 3:30am. Damnit.

And so began one of the longest days I've had in Australia. The plan was to go canyoning in the Blue Mountains, which is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Sydney, but with no bus, we were forced to catch a 5:45am train. Which was actually a cool experience since I hadn't yet.

When we got to the Blue Mountains, the train took us to the small town, where we met up with our guides for the day, who outfitted us with all the gear that we needed for the day. The last time I was in the Blue Mountains, everything was pretty dry and cliff-like, so I figured that "canyoning" mean rock climbing and belaying. Well technically it's called "abseiling" in Australia, it just means the same thing as belaying. We started abseiling down a small 3 meter cliff, then worked our way up to 30 meters, which is about 100 ft. which is pretty tall. Somehow I ended up attempting to lead the group back from the bottom of the cliff to the top where the instructors were. It was fun but I was wondering what we were going to do for the rest of the day.

After lunch we hiked down into a canyon (starting to make sense now) and pulled off our packs. At the beginning of the day when we were given our gear, the first thing we were given was a wetsuit. I was starting to understand why we'd need it. As we followed our instructor into the icy stream that flowed through the canyon we spent the next hour jumping into natural pools of water and climbing through the stream. It was so awesome. The best part was this one 15 foot jump that I must have climbed back and done about 6 times while we were waiting to abseil the canyon.

Charis, Cody, Chris, Adam, Jefferson and Shelby. Couldn't have gone with a better group. As we got to the waterfall and finally got our chance to abseil, I told myself I wasn't going last again. Second to last wasn't the worst haha. The worst part of waiting was that the water was absolutely freezing, and that every time it was someones turn to go down the waterfall, they made the most ridiculous "i can't believe i'm about to do this" face. Poor Jefferson is afraid of heights and didn't look down once the whole day. He said it was the most scared he's ever been in his entire life. "Face the fear" was the motto of the weekend.

When it was my turn, I clipped in and did my best to look graceful as I tumbled down the rock face, mostly because I was getting pounded with ice water the whole time. In retrospect it was pretty cool but it was not fun at the time. It was still cool though. I pushed off about 10 ft from the pool at the bottom and jumped in. I had done it. It was a pretty impressive waterfall too, about 100 ft. tall. As we were getting out of our wetsuits to hike back out of the canyon, we heard a huge clap of thunder overhead and the skies absolutely opened up and rained harder than I've ever seen before. We hiked back out of the canyon through the pouring rain and quarter sized hail (which hit me in the face and actually hurt a lot) and jumped back in the van to have a beer and enjoy the train ride back to Sydney where we'd get some sleep after a ridiculous weekend.