Will this is it - we are living the dream!! After a fraught morning getting everything finalised, we finally packed up the car. Unfortunately, there was no room for Tony and Gale's stuff!!! No seriously, Gale and I ended up sitting on their bags - they were kind enough to give us a lift to the airport on their way to a cycling weekend - thanks Guys!!!

We were very quickly and efficiently checked in by a very nice lady at the Air New Zealand desk and all the bags got checked in with no excess charges (other than the extra bag that we ended up taking!!) - Phew!!!

After buying our duty free (2 bottles of Smirnoff Blue sis!!!), what to do with 2 hours to kill before our gate was called? Let's go and have a drink and chill - this is when Ant proceeded to buy shares in Heathrow. Well so it seemed at £9.55 for a pint and glass of wine!!!

So far so good with Air New Zealand but the best was yet to come. The plane was a typical plane with the usual cramped conditions but the cabin crew were incredibly friendly and helpful and extremely generous with the drinks!!! Ant ordered a whisky and I ordered a Vodka - the glass was half full before they added the ice and mixer!!!!! Whilst watching 1 of the 78 films on offer, my vegeterian meal was served........ then my wine. This almost never happens with other airlines I have travelled with - I always end up with food and wine 1/2 hour apart. When they came round with the main dinner service, they filled up my wine glass again - except they didn't - they filled up my water tumbler....... and then they came round again!!!!!!!!!!!!

After falling asleep (no surprise there) for a couple of hours, we arrived at LAX pretty much on time even though we had left Heathrow 10 minutes late. The only thing the guy at immigration was worried about was my old passport and the fact we had been here in May!!! Alll that preperation for proving we weren't planning to live or work here was for nothing.

It is now 7:00 am in the morning and I am typing this as Ant has gone to get coffee. Weather forecast not good - had a lot of rain for the past view days and that is set to continue although it is still 60 degrees. Weather is due to warm up later next week.

We have limited (free) Internet access over the next few days so not sure when I can next update.