After 6 weeks of travelling around New Zealand, it's now time to move onto a new country! At this point, we were supposed to be going on to Fiji and then home. But because we came to NZ 6 weeks early due to the Oz flooding, we now have 6 weeks to play with. So, we decided to go to California!! Unfortunately, we can't stop in Fiji now though - something to do with only being allowed a certain number of stops on our round-the-world flight ticket. So anyway, we're off to the USA!!

We took the Airbus to Auckland Airport for $14 (£7) each, and arrived there just after lunch. Speaking of lunch, Therese tried Sushi for the first time. I don't want to try it, too fishy for me. Anyway, she quite liked it. I settled for a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich. Was alright apart from it was cheese slices.
I don't mind killing a bit of time in airports, and before we knew it, it was time for our 15.10pm flight with Qantas!

With an 11 hour flight ahead of us, we were glad to find that we had a nice new plane with TV screens in the headrests and loads if decent films to watch, including new cinema releases. I watched 5!! 127 Hours, Due Date, Conviction, Wall Street and Wall Street 2...I like movies.

Therese wasn't so happy with the meal choices on the plane - a macaroni cheese dish or a lamb dish, neither of which does she eat. I enjoyed the lamb anyway, plus the extra from Therese. I gave her my salad in exchange.
The food was really good on the flight. They came around with plenty of drinks, then we got an ice cream for dessert. Then we got a goodie bag with a bottle of water, a packet of biscuits, a bag of prawn cracker type things, a bar of chocolate and a small box of mints. Plus they came around with apples and fruit juices throughout the flight whilst the lights were out for sleep time.

But I didn't sleep, just watched movies. Therese grabbed a bit of sleep. She also had a guy next to her getting plenty of sleep...and he was snoring!! She could here him through her earphones when she was watching a movie!! We can't get away from these snorers, they're following us.

Time for breakfast....breakfast!? It was actually about 1am for us, but about 4am Los Angeles time. I suppose they put these meals on to help you adjust to the time zone. Scrambled egg with bacon beans hash brown and mushrooms, fruit salad, juice, coffee and a muffin.
They fed me well and kept me entertained, so I like Qantas.

11 hours later, we arrived in Los Angeles. We departed Auckland at 15.10pm on 25 February and arrived in Los Angeles at 6am 25 February...holy s***, we travelled back in time...it's like back to the future!! We get to live 25 Feb twice! But that now means we've missed a night's sleep...

We got through the rigmarole that is USA immigration - fingerprints, photo, clearing up why we're in America, when the last time we came to America was and where we went......we made it through.
After that, the first person we dealt with was a nice elderly guy who was the airport helper who directed us to the shuttle services. Obviously Therese wanted to take the old guy home for a cup of tea as always.
The second person we dealt with...well, she was a short, large woman with a serious attitude. I asked how much the shuttle was to our hostel and how long we'd have to wait. She said $16 and to wait in the line for about 10-15 minutes for the shuttle to come. I just said "ok, so we just have to wait for a few more people to fill the shuttle and we can go". She said "no, what I said was, get in line and the shuttle will be here in 10-15 minutes". I didn't expect any less of an attitude from her anyway. It was funny watching other people asking her questions and then seeing there faces in disbelief at how much of a b**** this woman was.

Did I mention it was FREEZING!!

So we took the Super Shuttle for $16 (£10) each through the chaotic traffic to Hollywood! It took about 40 minutes to get to our home for the next 4 nights, Banana Bungalow (or Vibe Hotel) on Hollywood Blvd. As it was only about 8.15am, we couldn't check-in to our room. We were so in need of a bed to grab a couple of hours sleep too! So we had to leave our bags and go for a walk up Hollywood Blvd.

First thing to note about Hollywood is that it is not glitzy. It's a hole. There's quite a lot of tramps around. People that don't look that trampy are even rummaging through the bins. The streets are a bit old looking too. We'd already been warned by friends about all that anyway.
It took us about 20 minutes to get to the Walk of Fame where all the Movie Stars names are on the pavement in big stars. That's pretty good walking along trying to spot different famous names. We could see the famous Hollywood sign in the distance too!
Got asked by loads of tour guide touts to do a tour. Then one guy started talking to us and then said that typical line that you'd here in a movie.... "Welcome da Hollywood". I cracked up laughing. I love Americans. They're just like the movies.

So, it's the Oscars here on Sunday, and there's a big stage all set up outside the Kodak Theatre. We had a walk around where the stars will be walking into the theatre. We even got to walk on the Red Carpet. Literally on it. There was a bit without plastic covering on!

Did I mention it was FREEZING! And it started raining!!

We went to H&M to buy an extra couple of cheap bits of clothing to keep warm and Therese got a coat for a bargain $10 (£7)! Then we went for some Mexican food at a place called Baja Fresh. It was awful! Really bland, tasteless food.

Finally it was about 2pm so we walked back and checked-in to our room. Seemed to take ages walking back, think that's because we were so tired and wanted a bed. It was shame then that we checked-in to a pretty awful room. People's clothes everywhere, bathroom isn't so nice and its cold. We weren't happy bunnies. I went back to reception and looked at another room but that was just as nasty. Anyway, we made do and went to sleep for about 3 or so hours until around 6.30pm

It was still absolutely throwing it down. At least the one good thing about the room is that they have a TV! So, we decided to stay in and ordered a Domino's Pizza. It was so cheap and we had a voucher for 2 pizzas at $14 (£9) delivered. It was the same price for one pizza! Saved on delivery cost too as I ordered with these other girls who were looking at the menu in reception as well. One of the girls tried to nick our garlic dipping sauce when the order came though - not having any of that! We watched TV for a bit and surfed the net on the free WiFi, then finally went to sleep at around midnight.

LONG DAY! Literally the longest day of our lives!