Seventeen days. Nine planes. Four boats. A whole lot of walking. This was our lives for two and a half weeks and all the travel and early mornings were defiantly worth it.

Melbourne. Our first sight of Australia. A city full of amazing architecture, and thousands of people. The cities rapid weather changes greatly resembled home. We spent a lot of our time in Melbourne travelling by tram, or bus to explore other parts besides downtown-where we were staying. On our third day in Oz, we hopped on a tour bus to the ultimate Australian wildlife experience. We went to an animal sanctuary where we got to feed uncaged animals. Later that day, we went to Phillip Island and watched nature in action. Every night on this island, tiny penguins make a long journey to their huts (that were built to keep their species from going extinct). We were watching hundreds of flightless birds swim up from the water to shore, and continue walking for a long, long time. It was something spectacular.

Byron Bay. This was surely my favourite destination on our trip. The little beach town, where everybody walked around in swimsuits and no shoes was a very interesting culture we weren’t exactly used too, but quickly adapted. My favourite moment on this leg of the trip was when my brother and I were sent to go get coffee for the parents on Christmas morning in the pouring rain. The rain was actually painful. We came back, (drenched-thanks mom and dad) and opened our presents. I would certainly go back to Byron Bay again.

The Whitsundays (Airlie Beach). This town is a little bit more of a tourist town-due to the Great Barrier Reef only hours away-but was quite beautiful. The view from our hotel of the marina was amazing, especially when the sun was setting. My favourite part in Airlie, was taking a long boat ride to the Great Barrier Reef. I saw fish with every colour in the rainbow. It was like I was watching National Geographic, and had to remind myself a couple times that this was real. Airlie Beach was overall pretty amazing.

Our last stop-Sydney. The Opera House, Manly Beach, The Harbour Bridge, and Rose Bay were where many of our sightings happened, but I think we can all agree that New Years Eve was stunning. When else were we going to spend New Years here. The food lines may have been long (two and a half hours…) but it was worth it to have such an amazing view of the fireworks flying above the Harbour Bridge. I also really enjoyed Manly Beach, it reminded me of Melbourne and Byron- a beachy yet urban town- and I loved it. As well as Byron Bay it was my favourite destination.

Overall this trip was quite the experience, and I enjoyed every second of it. Australia is the place to go.

Australia Video My Dad Made