Early start.  Drove back to LA where we dropped off our rental car and picked up our Escape rental van.  I love it already.  It's looks a bit like the Scooby-Doo van. Stopped off in Ventura for  the burger joint "in and out". The best burger so far but still not like nz.  The animal fries that we were told we had to have were just covered in their yuck cheese and and sauce.  It was like a heart attack on a plate. Stopped at Hearst Castle but missed out on doing a tour, looks like it would be amazing.

Then I got to drive the beast. We were traveling along the Pacific Coast highway so very windy. Hard way to learn to drive on the left. We got to Big Sur at about 10pm. Went to the campsite but it was booked out and so were all the others around. We forgot to note it was a Friday night! !! Decided to freedom camp. First place was outside a bar in a dark car park.  We moved to another car park a bit off the main road where we had seen some guys camping.  They decided to carry on driving so we were left alone and again it didn't feel right. After 30 mins of non sleep we decided to move again . Continued driving north, thought we might carry on to Sarah at Stanford. Stopped to get petrol in carmel by the sea, and here the attendant said to park in the car park opposite.  Erin asked the shrief and he pretty much gave us he permission to sleep there. Safe to say, Big Sur is not living up to its name as one of the coolest places on this coast.