The first leg of my trip began in Melbourne, Australia. I was lucky to have overall smooth sailing with all of my flights and my baggage made it intact. A full wrap around neck pillow saved me on the 14-hour flights from Houston, Texas to Auckland, New Zealand and I would highly recommend to anyone. Melbourne felt very much like an American city to me, I definitely did not feel like I was a 14-hour time change away from home. The next part of the trip was in Cairns. This was what I expected Australia to be like. With Kangaroos, lots of nature, other animals, and it was warm. I was able to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef which was a huge bucket list item of mine. I got to pet kangaroos and wallabies and even hold a koala. We went to a crocodile show and saw even more wildlife. Throughout the whole trip I ate so much great food, but I had some amazing Pad Thai there! The weather in Melbourne was mild, Cairns was much warmer. Right outside of our hotel room there were so many birds it felt like a scene from the movie Rio. Some of the birds were actually ones like in the movies which was so cool to see out in the wild! Next, we were off to Sydney! Sydney was my favorite out of all three cities we visited in Australia. It had the best mix of everything, city, ocean, great food, and things to do!