I just deleted a huge blog that I made of this day, and that annoys me. I'll try to replicate the same amount of sarcasm and wit that was in the last one, but this time it'll be structured and just, well, better. It will however lose some of the spontaneity and detail of that beautifully written former piece. Ah the humanity.

"Low tide, mid tide, tsunami?" was the question I was faced with on my stopover in Nadi, Fiji as I sat drinking kava with the "Kavaholics", of which I am now a life member (something which is evidently very easy to achieve). Kava tastes like cold water mixed with dirt. And don't worry about your tastebuds exploding with too much joy at that fact: kava has a numbing effect, and can also make you sleepy. Of course that's the best way to make sure I miss my connection to Hawaii, especially when mixed with several beers, which of course I was stupid enough to do as well. All of this meant my newly-swapped six tonne Tom Clancy novel never got touched during the so far ten hours of my travel...

The day started off by meeting Tasha literally in the eleventh hour as she very generously drove me to the airport and bought me breakfast. I even got a picture of me holding her beautiful baby daughter Petra before I finally and reluctantly had to leave New Zealand. I'll be back!

The other major happening of the day was of course my towel saga, which came to a head with YHA generously and wastefully sending my towel to a permanent address, which is my parents house. That's a travel towel being sent to the very place where, when I get there, I will no longer need a travel towel. All for only 150% of the cost of me replacing the towel in Auckland, which I have now done. Congratulations to YHA (a non-profit organisation) for balancing their books in such an efficient manor.

So, back to Fiji. I did manage to go back to the airport following my 5 hour holiday and I bought some gifts for Pat and Sean with my remaining Fijian dollars. We then took off and flew overnight to Christmas Island where we arrived and sat on the Tarmac for an hour. I think it was the 13th at that point (a whole 14 hours ahead of GMT). We then flew back in time an entire day to arrive in Honolulu in the morning of the 12th - two hours before I started from Auckland...

Then came the Americans. My first few hours on US soil did NOT go smoothly. I was detained at the border for TWO hours, all because I didn't have a full address that I was going to. Now, I'm a backpacker (as an official rightly pointed out as a half-snide comment), so even if I did have an address there's a good chance that in a couple of days I won't be there anyway. Heck, I've spent several nights travelling with no address at all! Pragmatically, it makes very little sense to kick up a fuss about this when I could just give then the address of a Hilton and be done with it. Anyway, I didn't know my friend Pat's address, I wasn't allowed to check Facebook (which incidentally had the information) or Gmail, and their national database sucks. The American database, beaten by Facebook - tut tut. There was only one person who was really trying to help me, so a big thanks to him.

Eventually I was allowed in, missing my connection to Maui and possibly my lift from the airport. Among the items relieved from my possession on this flight were a bottle of gin as a gift for Pat, 20 dollars for rebooking my flight and my dignity for knocking a soda onto my trousers with the flight tray. Good times. I just hoped that Sean was still around to pick me up from the airport. I was already 40 mins late.

He was there! I had got my baggage and had sat at the exit half expecting to need to find a phone (and someone's phone number) to get a lift. But Sean was there! I was so glad to see him I gave him a big sweaty man hug. I had been travelling for nearly 24 hours so I was glad of the use of a shower and a beer to relax me. I was finally here and among friends!

And the last piece of the puzzle fell into place when Pat turned up to whisk me away to his flat where I'd be staying for the next week. I was even treated to a meal at Thai Chef and introduced to the waitress Rose, who I would term as "sharp". Good banter. And then, at long last, I was able to sleep, after a 46-hour day. Surreal? Yes. I just hope I wake up and it's the next day.