Travel For Teens: Australia

This past summer, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Australia and anew Zealand with Travel for Teens. I was nervous to go, because my group contained 17 other people going with me. However, once I got there, the people I was with made me feel at home. I made friends easily. Those people I am still in contact with. Besides the friends aspect of the trip, we did so many amazing things in these countries. My personal favorite was scuba diving at The Great Barrier Reef. Another favorite aspect of the trip was our last stop, Sydney, Australia. The city was beautiful and I had so much fun just wandering the city with my amazing new friends and my amazing counselors. I recommend this trip to anyone who is interested, you definitely will not regret going on this trip of a lifetime.

For the summer of 2018 I traveled with TFT to New Zealand and Australia. It was probably one of the most fun and exhilarating trips I’ve ever had. I traveled solo and made so many new friends. The counselors were great and I felt safe the entire time. The whole trip was thoroughly planned out, with each excursion being a way to break out of my comfort zone and be adventurous. Every singe day I was so happy and looked forward to seeing the new bits of culture out in the beautiful countries I visited. In New Zealand, I was fortunate enough to go paragliding. The view was spectacular, I felt like I could graze over the mountain tops. The mountains looked like a photo out of a photoshopped post card. I enjoyed every second of the experience. One of the highlights for me wa the service part of the trip. We worked at Sheoak Ridge, a nature reserve in Australia. We built pathways and played with wallabies. It was so much fun and warmed my heart knowing that I was making a difference to the different animals at this reserve. Besides the fun activities during the trip, the people traveling along with me was what really made my trip with TFT so special. There were around 18 people in my travel group and each and everyone person was full of life and shared the same passion as me to travel. The friends I made are long lasting and the experiences we shared is what will bond us forever. I highly recommend traveling with TFT especially to New Zealand and Australia. I felt as if I was living my best life each and everyday. I plan on traveling with them again next year.

There are so many amazing and breathtaking moments from my Australia and New Zealand trip, we did so much from seeing the Sydney Opera House to paragliding in Queenstown. We immersed ourselves in the culture going to Aboriginal and Maori Hakas and some of us even got to join in. There was also the fulfilling volunteer work where we got to help at a nature reserve by making trails and clearing areas full of weeds. We also got to have a little fun with the animals, getting to feed the wallabies, going on bird watching tours, and a nighttime nature walk.
During our volunteer work, we camped in the Outback, some of us even slept in hammocks under the stars. At nights after a hard days work we would sit around a campfire cracking jokes, telling stories, singing songs, and playing games. We were so disconnected from technology we got to just enjoy the nature and the company of our new friends.
The counsellors were also amazing, leading us on these adventures and taking care of any of the few problems we had. There were days when things didn’t go to plan, but they made it work.
Overall, it was an unbelievable trip with unforgettable experiences, culture, volunteer work, and people.

I will never forget the three weeks I spent in New Zealand and Australia with Travel for Teens this summer. From the moment I stepped off the plane I fell in love with New Zealand. The beauty country is just breathtaking, and all the activities we did while in New Zealand were exhilarating. After an amazing few days in NZ we were off to Australia which was just as an amazing country. The service work we did while in Australia was incredibly fulfilling. I absolutely enjoyed every aspect of the trip, from day one to twenty-one! The counselors were the best!! They were approachable, spirited, and full of fun positive energy. The other campers on the trip were awesome, and by the end of the trip we all became like a big family! I can not wait to one day return to these stunning countries!

My trip to Australia and New Zealand with Travel for Teens has changed my perspective on traveling, I was not just a tourist when I visited these foreign countries but became extremely immersed in their culture, through experiences such as watching a ritualistic haka in New Zealand to camping in the Australian outback with locals. I felt at home in these countries and not out of place, which sometimes can happen when traveling. We stayed in hostels, not big chain hotels and got to meet so many locals that we could learn a lot from, such as where the best traditional places to eat were and where we should shop or visit if we had any free time (which luckily was not often because we always had some fun activity planned). Overall, I honestly had the time of my life on this trip and it really opened my eyes to truly experiencing different cultures, after I even told my Mom that this trip has showed me that I want-NEED to continue traveling to different parts of the world for the rest of my life.

I️ traveled with TFT to Australia and New Zealand and it was such an amazing experience from pair gliding to climbing the sydney harbor bridge we did everything! With travel for teen i️ got the unbelievable experiences of pairgliding off of a beautiful New Zealand mountain , scuba diving in the great barrier reef , going on sandboarding and climbing the sydney harbor bridge plus so much more.The consolers even helped to make it such fantastic time,they knew so much about every place we went and knew how to answer anything about Australia and New Zealand. You also got to know so much about all of the nature in Australia during the community service part of the trip, they teach you all about different plants and animals in Australia and what you can do to help the environment. This is such a phenomenal trip!

Traveling to Australia with Travel for Teens was an experience I will never forget. The counselors were so engaging, the friendships I made were long lasting, the excursions we went on (snorkeling, sand boarding, bridge climbing, koala holding) were mind blowing, and the service we did at a Wildlife Hospital was incredibly fulfilling. Whether you chose to go to Australia or not, I highly recommend that every high school student travel abroad before they leave for college. It is a necessary step to leaving the nest. It's a "test flight," and I've never had a better time being "tested" in my life.