The first stop in our trip was Bora Bora, in French Polynesia. We stayed in the Four Seasons resort, living in a hut suspended over the beautiful blue water. The views and weather were astounding, and I got to go diving for the first time in my life. This experience, as a dream vacation for many, was unsurprisingly amazing.

Our visit to New Zealand can be split into two parts, with our travels in both the North and South Islands. First, we booked a camper van and drove around the North Island. This was much more “roughing it” than we had been in Bora Bora, as we had five people in one large camper van. We drove all around, visiting various beaches, views, and family friends. My favorite part of this was when we visited one friend’s house, which they had built themselves. The entire house was a beautiful work of art, with murals and various artistic aspects crammed into every spare corner.

After this, we flew to Queenstown, in the South Island. This area was much colder, and we had rented a house to go skiing in the nearby mountains. Although the skiing was not amazing, what made up for this was the incredible views of Queenstown from the mountains. We were all taken aback by the perfect view, with the occasional cloud of fog flowing through and down steps of land like a waterfall.

Our time in Australia was spent in Tasmania, an island off the coast of mainland Australia. Here, we visited another resort called Saffire Freycinet, a wonderful experience that gave a full view of the surrounding nature. My favorite moment in Tasmania, however, was not in the resort. Instead, I most greatly enjoyed going to the Museum of Old and New Art, or MONA. This innovative museum held many thought provoking, interesting, and even at times absurd art. For instance, there was one installation featuring synchronized water pumps that would periodically “print” the news headline in the air, another inspired by quantum mechanics, and yet another featuring simply a heavy rock placed onto an unbent sheet of glass. This last piece was arguably the most frightening, as it felt as if the thick sheet of glass, straining against the perfectly calibrated weight of the rock, could shatter at any moment. Before leaving Australia, we spent some time in Sydney, observing the opera house.

Japan was one of my favorite locations, with an interesting and beautiful blend of city and nature inhabiting the same space. In Hakone, we were able to see the base of Mt. Fuji, although the top had been obscured by clouds. We ate so many cup noodles then, as there was a huge selection in every convenience store. Later, in Tokyo, I delighted in the huge amount of art sprinkled throughout the colorful city. There were screens everywhere, either showing an ad or simply an interesting pattern.

In Seoul, South Korea, we visited the war memorial. There were many beautiful, interesting and sad displays here, but we must have spent most of the time looking at the planes on display. Stella had fallen in love with a green prop plane in the collection, thus beginning her wish to become a pilot. Later, we visited the old palace grounds. This was a really cool view, as the skyline abruptly changed from bustling city to serene mountains, all with the structure of the palace in the foreground. We spent much of the rest of our stay in malls, to avoid the sweltering heat of Seoul.

We met up with my grandmother (on my mother’s side) in Hong Kong, and she helped to show us around the place she grew up. I was able to meet some of my extended family for the first time(that I remember), as well as see the plot where my grandmother spent her childhood. Of course, the house had been replaced with a huge apartment complex, but it was still interesting to walk or drive around the city, listening to my grandmother and extended family reminisce about her childhood.

Our stay in Singapore felt almost too short, with how many different activities we crammed into only a few days. We went to the Universal Studios amusement park, with many fun rides with a huge variety of themes. We also visited the Gardens by the Bay; domed enclosures filled with a variety of plants and structures to explore. Before leaving Singapore, we spent time in the airport, rated as the best airport in the world. It connected to a gigantic mall built around a giant man-made waterfall coming from the center of the glass-domed roof. This mall even had activities such as a ropes course and light show, so we had plenty of fun before needing to leave to catch the plane.

We spent some time in Cape Town, observing the incredible views of and from Table Mountain. Taking the gondola up was interesting, as the entire platform rotated to give a full view of the surrounding area. The mountain itself was also breathtaking, as the flat expanse was home to many unusual species of plants, with weird and beautiful flowers or leaves. The sensation of walking around on the top of the mountain, seeing the views from every angle, was strange, and not something one could experience in many other locations.

Our time in Kenya was spent at two different national parks, each with its own experience. The first of these was the Masai Mara park, where we stayed in a fancy tent next to a river. The area had huge expanses of plains with tall grass, meaning that many small animals could hide in the grass, but could also be spotted from a distance. On safari, we saw many animals such as lions, elephants, leopards, cheetahs, storks, buffalo, wildebeest, and many more small animals and birds. At the second park, in Meru, the landscape was much more covered in bush and trees. This made it harder to spot animals until we were close. We stayed in a huge open house on a hill overlooking the range, a much different experience than the previous safari. While on safari, we saw many of the same animals, except with the addition of rhinos and various species of monkey and baboon.