Australia Trip Review, Sydney Bike Tour & Harbor Bridge, Blue Mountains, Phillip & Kangaroo Island, Diving, Rainforest, Wildlife

We absolutely loved all of it, but Sydney was probably our favorite.  A wonderful city that justifiably earns its reputation as one of the world's most beautiful cities.  We did the Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb (a must do), a city highlights bike tour, a harbor cruise, and a day trip to the beautiful Blue Mountains outside of Sydney (which included a visit to an animal sanctuary).  We also just loved walking around the city.
We also enjoyed a visit to the Great Barrier Reef for diving and snorkeling, the Daintree Rainforest,  a visit to Melbourne where we found the energy very high and the city very pretty and fun to walk around.  One of our excursions out of Melbourne was a trip to Philip Island where we saw the Penguin Parade--indescribably adorable.
We finished our trip on Kangaroo Island where we had a great day tour of the Island that included seeing all kinds of animals (kangaroos, koalas, wallabys) in their natural habitats, plus absolutely gorgeous beaches.  Kangaroo Island is much quieter and less developed than other areas so it was a nice way to end our trip.  Our guide on this day tour also made us a delicious bbq lunch under a tent in a private wilderness area--unexpected and quite fun.
I've always heard from people who have visited Australia how much they love it and now we know why.  In addition to the diverse beauty of the country (and we only saw a relatively small portion of it), we found the people to be extremely friendly, helpful and down to earth.