A Guest Post by Jerry Farney

Hats off and a big salute to Phil and Golden Kennedy for a job well done:

Where to start? Not sure whether it was Golden’s Pavlova, the Milo, or the Quince paste (or maybe even the Vegemite) we sampled at our first visit that set the hook for us to work with Aussie World Travel.

My wife and I and our fourteen year old granddaughter, Sam, were beginning to entertain the idea of a short trip to Australia and possibly New Zealand during the summer break of 2010.  During the fall prior, my wife, the food editor for the daily Colorado Springs newspaper, stumbled upon a small ad for Aussie World Travel.  We both had traveled enough outside of the United States to know that we wanted to work with someone that would be a real expert on the area(s) we would be visiting, preferably a native. That’s how we ultimately discovered Phil and Golden.

What a serendipitous find.  My wife and I had in mind sampling great food and wines, exploring farmer’s markets, locating unique food artisans, making chef contacts, enjoying restaurants that highlighted the local cuisines, plus, just some good old general sightseeing.  Well, thanks to Phil, our short trip evolved into a month.  We not only covered our initial wish list, but more, much, much more.

During our first get-together with the Kennedys, they took granddaughter Sam under their wing and built up an array of trip ideas for her that included koalas, emus, Tasmanian Devils, crocodiles, shotover jetboats, snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef, seeing a sunrise in the outback, observing the spectacular night sky of the southern hemisphere, hiking in rain forests – oh, the list just went on forever!  Needless to say, Sam was ecstatic.  She could not wait to hit the road.

Over a period of a month or so, Phil laid out an itinerary that was just perfect for all our needs and desires.  He had nailed everything, and then some. Our final trip packet, with confirmation numbers and contacts, was extraordinarily detailed.  Both he and Golden had included additional suggestions and ideas for each location we were to visit.  We even had rental cars waiting in several cities to better explore the local area. And, the end results, we could not have been happier. Although the many flights and schedules were quite aggressive, we never missed a beat.

Phil setup connections for my wife in the foodie and wine world she would have never found on her own.  The various Australian state tourism agencies that Phil put us in contact with along the way were invaluable for my wife’s many on the road food articles she was sending back to Colorado during our travels. (Side note:  Tourism Tasmania was just outstanding).  Over a month, we ended up traveling to all the Australian states, with the exception of Western Australia, as well as both the north and south islands of New Zealand.

As for my granddaughter, Sam’s most favorite experience was handling an anemone while snorkeling with a marine biologist at the Great Barrier Reef, closely followed by hand feeding wallabies near Adelaide.  Her most scary: experiencing turbulence while circling and climbing up and out of the towering mountain walls surrounding Milford Sound in a single engine, four passenger plane to return to Queenstown, New Zealand.  She also very much liked the 20 year old hotel clerk at the Old Sydney Holiday Inn, located next to Sydney harbor and the opera house, who seemed to be extra friendly to us when Sam was in the vicinity; but I digress.

To sum it all up, we could not have had such an amazing trip without all the help, ideas and guiding hands of the Kennedy’s.  We have made some long lasting friends with Phil and Golden and look forward to combining a future travel adventure with both of them to yet another distant land.

G’day mate.

Jerry, Teresa and Samantha Farney
Colorado Springs, Colorado