After the disaster of having to make my way to El Salvador and having to change my flights because of the volcano Pacaya in Guatemala, I found myself sitting outside San Salvador airport at 4am waiting for the security guards to come and open the airport. I have to say it is probably the most unfriendly airport I have ever been to! Well, not unfriendly, but the most "I DON'T BELIEVE YOUR PASSPORT IS REAL" airport. I had to show my passport to enter the airport, to get my boarding pass, to go to security, to get through security, to enter the gate lounge, to get into the tunnel to the plane, and to get on the plane. You would have thought that by the time I got to the plane they would know if I had any problems with my passport! Also, they searched everyone's hand luggage before boarding the plane, even though we'd already been through security! It was insane.

I met some other people in the airport who were also getting the same connecting flight to LA with me. We realised that we had an hour to change, which made it a very tight connection. Usually, in Europe or Central America for example, it would have been fine because they take your checked luggage straight to the next plane for you. However, Americans are generally idiots, and the U.S. airports like to make everything more difficult for travellers. So, I had to go through immigration, and customs, then retrieve my bag, then recheck it into my flight from Houston to L.A., then almost had to run to the gate which was on the opposite side of the terminal! Luckily, I made it with 5 mins to spare, I was pretty stressed out! Haha.

When I got to L.A. I realised I had 12 hours or thereabouts before my flight to New Zealand, so I got a taxi to my friend Sally's house and I had a nap and then we went shopping and went out for an Italian meal, which was delicious, and then she took me back to the airport. It was so good to see her again after a couple of months and way better than just hanging about in the airport!

I finally got onto the plane to Auckland at 11.45pm on Saturday night, and I think that even though it was almost 13 hours long, it may well have been the best flight I have ever been on! I was initally sitting next to a really nice Kiwi girl in her 20s whose sister was one of the hostesses. Her sister moved her to a better seat, so then I had 3 seats to myself. About 10 minutes before take off her sister came back to me and gave me a complementary glass of champagne because I had been talking to her sister!! Great start!! The air hostesses were all really friendly and helpful aswell, more so than normal. I could lie over the three seats and sleep for a while, and I watched a couple of films. They were constantly providing us with good food and drinks for free, and even gave us fresh apples! It was ace.

I actually missed out on Sunday because we crossed the international date line during the flight, so even though the flight was only 12 to 13 hours long, I left on the 29th and arrived on the 31st. I got here a couple of hours ago and have made my way to a hostel here. I am a bit jetlagged so I am just going to chill out for the rest of today, about to go and get some food then try and get a haircut and buy a few warm hoodys as it is winter here! It's not unbearably cold though, it just feels pretty cold to me because I've been in summer for the last 5 months!

I start my tour of New Zealand tomorrow morning and I'm very excited about it! Bring on an awesome month :D It's been a hectic few days to say the least, but it's another experience to add to the list :) Crazy times man. Bring on lots more crazy times I say! Here's to travelling!

Love Joelle

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