Review: Australia Vacation, Sydney, Melbourne, Hamilton Island, Local Food, Nature, Wildlife

Our travel agent saved our vacation! About 5 months ago I started planning an epic once in a life time trip to Australia. We were going to vacation across the country, first in Melbourne, then Hamilton Island, and finally Sydney. Our agent worked directly with me to set up an itinerary that suited my family's needs and budget. He thought of everything, even making sure there were car seats in our rides to and from the airport and that we scored basinet seating on the airplane so I didn't have to hold my 9 month old the whole time. He also had people waiting for us at each city with signs waiting for our arrival, which is awesome when you don't know where you are going.  Here is where our agent became a super hero to my family. We were on Hamilton Island when Cyclone Debbie hit the Gold Coast (CAT 4). All air and sea traffic was stopped so we were basically stranded on the island waiting for Debbie to arrive. Our agent rescheduled our flights to Sydney and then back home without any need for me to even pick up the phone (except to call him). In a twist of fate we were emergency evacuated from the Island and dropped off in Brisbane, which was an unscheduled stop. With a very bad phone connection our agent was able to book us a hotel in Brisbane and reroute our air tickets to Sydney the next day. He took care of all the rebooking of the hotels in Sydney and changed all the tickets for our outings, as we were 3 days late arriving because of Debbie. A cyclone wasn't a pleasant surprise on my vacation but our agent and his wife definitely were. I can not sing his praises enough! I will never travel without a travel agent again (and trip insurance). He saved our vacation and after we got off Hamilton Island we really enjoyed ourselves.