Another crack of dawn……By now we had named the Centra at Aukland "Fawlty Crossroads Motel". The catalogue failures was endless but highlights included TV remote control not working, coffee machine out of order at breakfast andhaving my glass of Pinot Noir served into my lap. The domestic departure lounge at Auckland was devoid of any facilities save a ropey cappuccino. Finally we were off and no more airports for 3 weeks. Arrived in a cloudy and ...

Drew the curtains to survey the activity in the Budget lot, treated ourselves to the Sheraton buffet breakfast (ironically the most wholesome so far) and checked out. We were looking to forward to 12 hours of movies and snoozing, but got let down: another night in LA, compliments of Air NZ. Upgraded to the Hilton, which was a major improvement and good result seeing as it was our fault we missed the flight in the first place. Making the best of the unscheduled...

Uh oh! Struck camp in Vegas and drove to the old end of the strip past the faded classics like the Sahara. Turned left on to Interstate 15 and headed south for LA. Passed desert landscape of Joshua trees, scrub, bill boards and the odd trailer house for a couple of hours before stopping in Barstow for a burger. The weather had broken and the odd spot of rain appeared on the windscreen. By the time we got to the pass near Big Bear ski resort we were in clouds an...

Doing The Strip (fully clothed) Late start today….Annelise volunteered to go to the Starbucks across the road for breakfast. Left the room at 1130 and set out to see the sights of the strip. First on the agenda was the Palazzo: ambled through the mall, flanked with Fendi, Dior Jimmy Choo etc (no-one buying) and reached the legendary Venetian canal, complete with gondolas. The clear turquoise water made it look a bit false though! Further on was a replica of S...

Annelise woke at 630 after a solid 4 1/2 hours sleep……I soon realized that the final JD on the rocks was a big mistake…..she wasted no time drawing the curtains (from bedside remote control) and opening her birthday cards, e cards and messages/ texts. (Thanks everyone - it really made her day). Watching the sun rise over the desert and reflecting off the top of the Wynn was quite something. Breakfast arrived and we sat next to the window admiring the view ...