We had three weeks to explore 1 continent and 2 countries, with Australia alone being as large as the continental United States. So needless to say, we did not see everything, but we did do A LOT!

Let me give you the highlights of our trip…

We arrived in Aukland, New Zealand and started with the U.S. versus Vietnam Women’s World Cup game (WWC games were on the top of Adalyn’s to-do list). The U.S. won and it was such a fun and friendly environment. We then drove down to Wellington, New Zealand for the second U.S. game against the Netherlands. We stopped along the way to see glow worms in Watomo Caves and Hobbiton (the movie set location used for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and The Hobbit film trilogy). We also went zip lining in the forest (another favorite of Adalyn) and went to a cultural experience about the Maori people. It is always fun for us to engage with and learn about new cultures, plus try new foods. We drove through Mount Tongariro National Park where it snowed on us, we got a glimpse of “Mount Doom” and we hiked to “Gollum’s Pool” (again from Lord of the Rings trilogies).

We left New Zealand and started our adventures in Australia by flying to Brisbane and renting a camper van to drive up the northeast coast to Cairns. It was a tight space, but we survived, and we had fun figuring out how to manage cooking and sleeping arrangements. That was a new and fun adventure for us (and a request straight from Adalyn herself)! Along the way, we stopped at different towns on the coastal roads. We went whale watching in Hervey Bay, where the Humpback whales come every year for breading (this was high on my to-do list). We went to Camp Hillsborough where we saw kangaroos, and we woke up at sunrise to see wallabies on the beach. We took a day trip to the famous Whitsundays for snorkeling, and we took a trip to the Daintree Forest at Cape Tribulation where where two UNESCO World Heritage sites border one another: the Daintree Rainforest is the oldest rainforest on the planet and the Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest living organism. It was a beautiful trip! Then, we traveled to Cairns to spend the night on the Great Barrier Reef (this was the top of Leland’s to-do list). It was an amazing experience to be out on the ocean overnight. The waves were pretty rough for snorkeling, but we managed to see some sharks and Leland swam with a sea turtle. Adalyn got a little seasick, but she made it through and it was still an awesome adventure.

We flew to Melbourne for the U.S. versus Sweden game, where the U.S. sadly lost and were eliminated on penalty kicks. That was heart-breaking, but we’re glad we got to see all the matches for the U.S. We continued our journey driving from Melbourne to Adelaide on the Great Ocean Road. It was beautiful and we saw the beautiful ocean and beaches, amazing rock formations, and some great animals (a koala, kangaroos, emus, a wombat, and lots of cool birds). It was a nice drive, and we continued to our destination in Flinders Range, the largest mountain range in Southern Australia and the start of the Australian Outback (another top item for Leland). We experienced a night void of light pollution and saw an amazing night sky covered in stars. It was beautiful and everything we imaged it would be.

We flew from Adelaide to Sydney as we wrapped up our traveling. We spent a few days in Sydney and it was a great time seeing the sites, riding ferries, trains and buses to get to different places around town. We played golf along the ocean in the world-famous Bondi Beach, we had brunch with a view of the Sydney Opera House, we walked on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and we explored the Royal Botanical Garden. We also got to experience being surrounded by Australians when their women’s soccer team, the Matildas, won the game that put them in the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup. It was a great time celebrating with Australians and making new friends.

After all of that, in a whirlwind three weeks, we flew back to Uganda from Sydney. Overall, it was an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience, and we are very thankful to have the opportunity for the travel and making memories as a family.