We spent 24 hours in Auckland, at an airport hotel, before catching our flight to LA. The only notable occurence during this time was some cretin stealing our cheese!

After a 12 hour flight (in which the in flight entertainment system for rows J and K (us!) conked out once every hour - usually when nearing the end of a film) Mark was greeted by the most miserable immigration officer in the world...

Mark: "Good Morning"

Official: "Whats good about it?" (snarling)

Oh dear!

Thankfully we weren't denied entry to the country and our faith in the cheery American people was restored by our taxi driver who turned out to be a Man U fan! (An unusual thing in this nation of baseball and American football)

We booked a hostel right on Hollywood Boulevard, just where the Walk of Fame (stars on the pavement) starts and with a view of the Hollywood sign. Interestingly the hostel was also over the road from the 'Museum of Death' though we declined to visit this fascinating looking establishment (the 10m high picture of a skull on the front probably put us off a bit!)

On our first full day in Hollywood we went on a tour which took us up to the Hollywood sign, to Rodeo Drive and the Sunset Strip. We also cruised round looking at the homes of the stars in Bel Air and Beverly Hills. We saw Julia Roberts' grand hillside estate, the Beckhams LA pad, the house where Michael Jackson is staying to await his liver transplant and the Playboy Mansion (!) amongst a vast array of others. Heading back to Hollywood we wandered around looking at the stars handprints outside Graumans Chinese Theatre and visited the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars had been held 3 days earlier.

The following day we headed off on the metro to Universal Studios. The Studio Tour was excellent and we saw film and TV sets for Desperate Housewives, Back to the Future, Jaws, Psycho, War of the Worlds, The Grinch and others. We also saw some of the animal stars of the film 'Evan Almighty' perform and got soaked on the Jurrassic Park ride!

We have noted that there are a lot of weirdo's wandering around the US... everywhere you look people are talking to themselves or wearing odd outfits. One lady was holding a loud and detailed conversation complaining about steet lamps that didn't work...she explained to Mark that she was talking to her dad 'who was dead'!!!! Kim got shouted out at by a starey-eyed oddball who we think called her a 'bad woman' (!)... though he backed up and looked disconcerted when Kim cheerily said good morning to him!