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Australia is an incredibly diverse society, a melting pot of cultures and people from around the world. This is a vast country, each region offering its own brand of hospitality, charm and a way of life both similar to that in the USA and vastly different.

The Travel for Teens approach includes meeting the locals, understanding how history and geography have impacted life and connecting with the culture in a meaningful way while having the time of your life. Our participants are not herded around on a rigid schedule eating banquet food and sleeping in “Americanized” hotels.

The original citizens of Australia were the Aborigines, and the arrival of the English convicts and free settlers that succeeded Captain Cook's European discovery of this magical land changed life forever for its indigenous citizens. We will have opportunity to meet Aboriginal people, explore their art, dance and music and develop awareness of the issues facing all the citizens of Australia today.

We fly into Brisbane in Queensland and immediately head off to the most beautiful of the islands off the coast of Australia. While all the tourists are over on crowded Frazer Island, our group will be sleeping beachside in luxurious accommodations on a different nearby island paradise. Our emphasis is on natural and authentic beauty.

The island is 98% National Park, protecting the flora, fauna, sandy coastline, freshwater lakes, wetlands and forests. It is a unique island wilderness with sparkling clear water and white sandy beaches, one of the few untouched areas of natural wilderness along the East Coast of Australia, and it is one of the largest sand islands in the world. Our hotel is right on the beach, where the sunrise brings a wash of coral pink over an azure sea. Put on your snorkel, mask and fins, and splash your way out to the artificial reef, made by sunken ships. Now, you may have been snorkeling before, but you’ve never seen anything remotely like this.

You approach the submerged ships in water that is just slightly too deep to see the bottom, so you are surrounded by a vastness of light green water. But when you reach the ships, everything changes. Not only do the ships themselves look ethereal sitting on the seafloor in thirty feet of water, but the water itself is teeming with brightly colored fish! Of course, if snorkeling is not for you there are other fun choices, like relaxing on the beach, hiking, wading out into the shallow, warm water and beach volleyball. Sand tobogganing is another favorite – you’ll never forget an exhilarating toboggan ride down the awe-inspiring white sand slopes of the Sand Hills.

At night, we’ll head out into the shallow water to feed wild dolphins. These are not tame, trained animals – they are truly wild and live free in the ocean, coming to visit us of their own free will.

From this island paradise we’ll go into the Outback to spend the next several days on a cattle ranch. 'The Outback' refers to a region that is larger than the entire state of Texas, and it is the natural habitat of emus (flightless birds standing 6 feet tall) and equally tall red kangaroos. In the Outback, individual cattle stations (ranches) are measured in hundreds of square miles.

During our three full days on the cattle station, you can ride horses through remote, desolate lands you have only seen in the movies ("Survivor" was filmed nearby). You will travel by 4x4 vehicle to the most remote outback areas, hike to a waterfall to enjoy the magnificent views down through a huge gorge, and to learn a little of the history of this remarkable, wild area and the life skills required to live in it.

You will go kangaroo spotting, ride a mechanical bull, swim, learn to lasso and throw a boomerang, learn how to brand a calf (on a wooden calf that feels no pain). The storyteller will introduce you to moving and hilarious stories passed down through the generations as you sit around the campfire.

Our stay will be spent sleeping in homestead accommodation and connecting with the true lifestyle of the Outback, not the romanticized version. Bushdancing has historically been the social outlet, so we will learn it (similar to line dancing) and we will learn to cook our food over the campfire under the stars.

The stars are, of course, those of the Southern Hemisphere, including the Southern Cross, and are quite brilliant without the light pollution to which we have grown accustomed. There is a whole new vocabulary to be learned as well, and before long you will find yourself brewing some billy to drink with your damper and tucker, making you fair dinkum, mate. Oh, and we do have flush dunnies out there! Nice, comfortable beds, too in the bunkhouse.

After our Outback adventure, we’ll switch gears in a major way and head to Brisbane to Steve Erwin's Zoo Australia, then into Cairns, party central for this part of Australia. Boat out to the Great Barrier Reef to experience this unimaginably exotic and magical place. You can scuba dive or snorkel and you will understand why it is so important to join the campaign to save it.

Back in Cairns, we focus on traditional Aussie culture. You will see crocs, hold koalas, visit a man who specializes in handling venomous spiders and snakes to make antidote and see a profusion of butterflies. You will ride an award-winning cable car for 32 kilometers (longest in the world) and explore the local markets.

We’ll go to the rainforest station, learn the important role rainforests play in the world, chow down on a traditional Aussie BBQ and take a river rainforest cruise on an Army Duck boat that rolls over land and then splashes into the water to finish the trip. After catching a scenic train back to the hotel we’ll witness the feeding of the cassowaries (huge birds big enough to kill a person) and handle baby crocs.

Our final adventure in Oz is 4 days in Sydney, a cosmopolitan and gracious city. Your choices will include an optional performance in the famed Opera House, built at a cost of over 100 million dollars. Take a cruise on the Sydney Harbor, then go to our trip leader Damien's house right on the water for a cookout around the pool and a visit with local Sydneians. After our relaxing BBQ, we’ll take a bike trip through the city.

There is ample opportunity to shop if you want or you can visit the place where Captain Cook landed and changed Australia forever. You also have an option to climb the Harbor Bridge (if you are not afraid of heights.) Our final dinner in Australia is at sunset in a fabulous restaurant overlooking the harbor, the Opera House and the bridge. The flight to New Zealand is the next day...

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Believe it or not (and you will after spending four days there!), New Zealand, site of the filming of "Narnia" and "Lord of the Rings," is even more beautiful in real life than it is in the movies.

New Zealand is famous for its high quality jade, a great gift for the folks back home. For the adrenaline junkies, imagine the world's most thrilling high-speed boat ride (it doesn't feel so safe, but it is!) right up the river where they filmed "Lord of the Rings."

The natural scenery brings new meaning to the word "magnificent," where dramatic, snowcapped mountains meet placid lakes, creating a utopian wildlife paradise. Eat the biggest and best burgers you have ever seen as you stroll the town.

For our final night we take the hemisphere's steepest cable car to the top of the mountain for dinner and enjoy a genuine, interactive performance of the Haka. This tribal dance, designed to terrify the enemy before combat, is performed to great effect by the New Zealand National Rugby Team before every international match.

New Zealand is guaranteed to be quite unlike anything you have ever experienced and is a fitting way to finish up the unique, unforgettable Australia & New Zealand trip.