Skydive Byron Bay is a must-do!
After not having a break for quite some time, Karina and I decided to do a road trip up the NSW north coast to Byron Bay to do a skydive with SkyDive Australia over the Easter long weekend.
An early morning start had us up in Tuncurry to visit our mates Graeme and Damo at Downtown Kustoms, great to see all the amazing custom car builds they are working on, especially the FC ute which will be making its debut at MotorEx.
We drove up to Harwood Island which is near Maclean and stayed the night with our family friends Stan & Irene. It was great to have a hearty meal and some good yarns with them seeing as I hadn’t seen them for many years.
Continuing on the next morning, we finally made it up to Byron Bay. We stayed in a nice cottage in a small suburb called Stokers Siding which is about 40 mins north of Byron.
Hot tip: If you are traveling north to Stokers Siding from Byron, Google maps will tell you there is a turn-off to take that will lead you out to Stokers Siding. We were surprised to see that there is no turn-off and that it’s best to find the Brunswick Valley Way which takes you on to Tweed Valley Way.
I booked the cottage through Airbnb, which is so quick and easy! I recommend anyone traveling, or doing short trips to check it out, you can find some really nice places that aren’t too expensive. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the owner’s friend who gave us the key to the cottage. We were then set for the weekend.
As per usual, it rained over the Easter break so we didn’t get out as much as I would have liked but we still managed to have a look around the local town. It’s one of those places that are relatively close to the big cities but feels like you are in the middle of nowhere. We did some exploring around the property and found a beautiful big pond that is at the bottom of the valley. Everything was so green and when you stopped to listen, it was just dead silent. A bit eerie but very peaceful.
On Saturday we went for a drive down to Crystal Castle. Wow! This place is crazy! Giant Buddha, giant crystals, fantastic gardens. Highly recommend checking it out, be sure to give yourself at least half a day to walk around and see all of the features. It also has a cool crystal shop, I got some nice Australian gems and minerals for my collection (yes, I have a gem and mineral collection).
By Sunday morning, it had been raining on and off pretty much all weekend so we weren’t sure if we were even going to get the chance to Skydive Byron Bay. I had never driven in such heavy rain as we drove down to the jump location. I was sure we would get there and they would tell us we couldn’t jump, but after waiting a couple of hours, it cleared up and we were set for take off.
Probably the craziest thing I have done so far is jumping out of a plane, it’s such a massive rush! Clearly, you can see how hyped I was after it by telling everyone I’m going to travel Australia, by that I meant travel Australia and skydive as many locations as I can!
