We arrived in Newport Beach at the end of a full day of travelling in two busses to get to LA, walking to the car hire office and then driving down the coast. When we arrived we met our new couch surfing hosts, Felix and Rey, and their two other couch surfers, in their unit a few minutes' walk from the beach. Felix and Rey are avid surfers (the kind where you actually catch waves, not couches) and health food fanatics who were great fun to hang out with.

While in town we visited Newport Beach for sunset, Laguna Beach and Crystal Cove all of which were beautiful but Newport was our pick of the bunch, we even thought it gave some of Australia's best beaches a run for their money. The super-rich communities of Orange County were very evident but we couldn't even get close to them as they were gated, to keep the riff-raff like us away. None the less the shops and galleries in the area told us enough.

In the evenings Rey got his cook on and showed off his excellent culinary skills, on the first night he conjured up three separate meals to suite everyone's requests. They also pumped some Beatles, got out a board game we knew from home and offered to teach us how to surf although the water was much much too cold for us Aussies.