Hello!

We have had a weird, wonderful and dazzling start to our time in America.

After a monstrously long, but surprisingly bearable, flight of 12 hours from New Zealand, we landed in Los Angeles somewhat tired and confused. The fact that we lived the same day twice, and that the day in question happened to be St Patricks day, left us rather jaded indeed! Nevertheless, after a short rest in our Hollywood motel room, we ventured out to explore. The first thing we noticed was how bitingly cold it was in Los Angeles. This came as quite a shock as we were expecting rather warmer climes after the chilly English-like weather in New Zealand.

Our motel was in a great location just off Hollywood Boulevard where the stars of the Walk of Fame are embedded in the pavement. It was whilst we were meandering down this road on our first evening in America when we were suddenly screamed at by a clearly mad street preacher that the "rapture is nigh" and that we must "REPENT!" Needless to say we were rather terrified and quickly found some food before retreating sharpish back to our room. The next day, after a considerable lie in, we felt rejuvinated and slightly more prepared to deal with the strange folk that linger around Hollywood. We had a wonder around and went to the Guiness World Record and Hollywood Wax Museums which were really fun (although Olivia became rather scared in the House of Horrors zone in the latter)! It was later that night, in an "authentic" Hollywood Thai restaurant, that we experienced our first proper helping of American food portions. We foolishly ordered a starter to share as well as a main each and the resulting feast that was brought to our table could have liberally fed everyone in the room! On our last day in LA we went on one of the many bus tours that take in movie locations, sights such as the Hollywood sign, Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive, and celebrity homes including the Beckham's house, the Playboy Mansion and Michael Jackson's home where he died. That afternoon we also visited the Ripley's Believe it or Not Odditorium, which was pack with wierd and interesting tales and artifacts from around the world. Early the next morning we caught a 6 hour greyhound bus to Las Vegas...

We stayed at the Stratosphere, one of the mega hotel-casinos on the infamous strip, which boasts a huge tower that has stunning 360 degree views of the whole city. After we had explored the casino floor and ridden the lift over 100 floors up to the top of the tower we set out exploring the other incredible super casinos that occupy Las Vegas Boulevard. The Stratosphere was quite a way up the road from many of the other casinos and we opted to take taxis for the ten minute drives to and from the central strip. Unfortunately, this introduced us to an unenjoyable experience that would be a constant theme over the next two days, namely Las Vegas taxi drivers. They all hate their jobs, and the "miserable place" where they work, with tremendous passion and become irate unless you tip them handsomely. After a short drive costing $11 on the meter, one driver asked us if we wanted any of the $20 note we gave him back. When Olivia replied we wanted $9 he became incensed that he wasn't getting a tip before sarcastically wishing "well good luck, kid". Another one, who had been reasonably cheerful most of the journey, scoffed at us even after we had tipped him, saying "thats not even 20%! I gotta pay for gas you know, but I guess you just dont care". He's right there, we didnt!

However, not even the darstedly taxi drivers could overshadow the truly incredible place that Las Vegas is. Each casino is like a mini city each with its own amazing unique theme. We could have spent weeks just exploring them. We thoroughly enjoyed a prolonged "casino crawl", our idea of a more elaborate English pub crawl, in which we took in The Venetion, The Bellagio, Planet Hollywood, Paris, the MGM Grand and New York New York, before ending in the sky tower back at the Stratosphere quite suitably sozzled. On our last night, we got dressed up and went to the MGM Grand where, somehow, we had mangaged to get front row seats for Cirque Du Soleil's "KA". This was a fantastic show performed in a huge, purpose built theatre where a gigantic pit of fire occupied the manouverable stage space when we entered. It could have only been in Las Vegas!