It was a bit cheaper to fly on a 'Round the World' ticket rather than a return flight to Auckland from the UK. This meant that we had a scheduled stop-off in Los Angeles for one night.

Our plane was quite late in taking off from Heathrow because the BA staff decided that it was going to be a free-for-all plane boarding! This lead to scuffles between the 1st Class and Economy Class passengers which made for good viewing and Sheona and I sat for an hour and waited until most of the people were on!

The flight wasn't too bad and we arrived into LA whereupon we called the hotel pick-up service and we were on our way. The Hacienda Hotel was actually really organised, cheap and convenient; we couldn't ask for more. Some people from the London flight were transferring straight onto the Auckland one. I don't think I could've done that: 22 hours of flying in a day!

We had an amazing breakfast at a restaurant not far from the hotel. Obviously its not far if you have a car, but people were giving us very strange looks as we were walking around! We had to ask for directions from a guy who worked in a "Doggy-sitting-grooming" shop. He was massive, gruff and covered in tatoos but was clearly looking after poodles all day! He even had his own hair pleated!

One American Breakfast later and we went down to probably the worst beach in the whole of LA, situated right next to a chemical plant and a "Steam Factory"... where they make steam...

We finished off our stopover by having a Starbucks (Latte, skinny, shot, easy on, low carb, sunny side up...) and then looking around the local supermarket. So many choices in such a small space! It was unbelievable how much they managed to fit into that place.

Next up: New Zealand!

-B