No sedentary life for these thrill-seeking seniors
Residents at Bayview Gardens retirement village (run by AVEO) are proving that age is no barrier to adventure with the help of Melinda Akehurst, community manager. Melinda has been at Bayview Gardens for seven years (14 with AVEO) and received Community Manager of the Year award at the Retirement Living National Awards in 2025. Marcus Pierce, a longevity motivational speaker, spoke at the awards event and his words resonated with Melinda.
“He talked about (people living longer) in Sardinia’s blue zone, challenging themselves and living such fulfilling lives,” says Melinda, who then asked Bayview residents how they could challenge themselves. One suggested skydiving.
“I went, ‘I’m not sure I could get that through (workplace, health and safety), but how about indoor skydiving?’” says Melinda. “Next thing you know, we had a full bus and went and did it.” The group of 12 residents (one 86 years old) and two staff members travelled to iFly in Penrith in late 2025.
“It was fantastic, the joy it brought them, and just stepping out of their comfort zones.”
Bayview resident Garry Leyshon, 78, said skydiving was ‘exhilarating.’ “It was a challenge to leave Terra Firma, that’s for sure, diving head first, so to speak, into the cylinder with air coming up underneath you. But it was exhilarating.”
“It was just so out of our everyday lives,” says resident Julia Deberg, who’s 78. “It made you feel like you were 30 years younger. You have this feeling of weightlessness floating around.”
Seeking more thrills, the residents gave whitewater rafting a go in February. Despite being nervous, no one jumped ship, although one man fell overboard.
“According to him, he rescued a few people, surfed the rapids, looked like David Hasselhoff!” laughs Melinda. “He just fell over and got pulled back in, but he’s making efforts to embellish his story.”
Bayview Gardens residents taking on new challenges
“The white-water rafting was terrific,” says Garry. “There’s water rushing everywhere and you’re trying to maintain your seat, paddling at the same time.”
“It was pretty fast and wild,” Julia says. “We had six to a boat and an instructor in the back yelling at us to lean this way and control it ourselves. He’d say, ‘left side paddle, right side paddle,’ so we weren’t just sitting in the boat, we were actively using the boat to balance ourselves.”
Melinda says they’ll try and organise anything (within reason) and even had camels roaming the village last year as camel-riding was on a resident’s bucket list. Next up is go-karting!
“This is their home, not ours,” she says. “The sky’s the limit with what residents can do.”