Australia and New Zealand Trip - 01

During the summer of '07 I had the pleasure to take a trip to New Zealand and Australia, which I have to say, out of all the places I have been (and there is alot) it is one of my favorite trips. In New Zealand I visited sheep farms, the beautiful mountain sides, and which some people don't know; the sites of which the movie "The Lord of the Rings" was filmed. It was a fantastic trip and I loved the snowy landscapes.

From there I went to Australia, the first place being Cairn, which is a beach resort on the great barrier reef. Our travel sevice chartered us a boat with a guide so we could go deep sea fishing, because of the high seas we only caught one fish (it was a preety good sized fish) and the people who owned the boat gutted it and said they were using it as marlin bait. All I was thinking to my self was wow they are usong that huge fish as bait? - want to get in on the marlin fishing. We stayed at a hotel which was a cluster of personal bungalows that were so nice to stay at. It was cold because it is a different season on that side of the world. We visited many cultural sites and the marketplace a few streets down.

From Cairs we went to Ayers Rock which is an aboriginal site in the desert which is under the beautiful night sky. We ate authentic Australian food and drank their champagne. The organizers also brought in a astrologist to show the different constellations under their unlighted sky. It was a beautiful sight to see.

We also visited a place called agrodome which is a place for the kids to do extreme sports. There was bungee jumping (which I had the pleasure of going on), go-karts, indoor sky diving, zorbs (a plastic ball you go in to go down the side of a hill), and many more things. It was quite an experience.

We visited the famous Sydney, Australia which was fun even though it was in the city. We walked on top of the sky tower, which we had to get suited up to go up there because of the high winds, we visited the famous Sydney Oprah House, and we looked at the sites of the city.

Overall the Australia/New Zealand trip was one of my favorites (up there with the safari's of Africa) and I recommend it to all of you. If you are interested in going, I want to recommend a travel service which designed my trip and made it the experience it was. You can visit their website at, www.culturalvacations.com. They specialize in the foreign and cultural trips of the world and you have to check them out.