Auckland to Los Angeles – My 'Longest Day'

Today I left New Zealand,I had a lazy morning getting up about 10am packing my bags and then I drove down to the Airport and dropped the car off and checked in. My flight was due to leave at 3:40pm but I was at the Airport for about 1pm. Check in was OK and I went through Security to the Departure area, grabbing a quick meal at Burger King. I was aware that there was extra security checks for US flights and the PA was also constantly advising to go straight to the gate so I joined the queue for the gate. First we had all boarding cards and passports rechecked then we had to queue to have a full pat down check including removing shoes and checking though wallets, then queue again to have all hand carrys checked by hand finally I was able to get to the gate. I was glad I had had the Burger King meal as there was nothing to do but sit and wait for about an hour at the gate with no access back to the main part of the Departure Lounge. Finally we boarded the plane and took off for the 12 hour flight to Los Angeles. I only dozed for about 20 minutes on the flight and watched a couple of the movies. Even though I had a window seat there wasn't much to see over the Pacific in the the dark. We finally flew over the US coast at around 6am just as it was becoming dawn, however this was 6am n the same day as I had left New Zealand as we had crossed the International Date Line and it was Tuesday all over again. I filled in the now usual immigration and customs forms just before we landed. Once on the ground it was a now standard trek from the gate to the Passport Control which was reasonably quick, The bags seemed to take ages to get through. I'd ticked the usual boxes on the Customs Form regarding tents and soil etc. expecting to get everything checked before bringing them into the States, however the Customs guy just waved me through. I made my way around to the 'Exit to Street' sign and walked up the ramp to look for the Hotel Transfer Buses only to be confronted by a person looking just like my Dad waving at me... It was my Dad, and my Mum, they had flown out a couple of days before to surprise me... and it did! I was totally gobsmacked. I had called them the other day and got no answer and had called my Sister who told me they had gone to France to get some wine (That didn't surprise me in the least) In fact they were in Southern California (buying wine!) I was really pleased to see them and I really had no Idea. We loaded the bags into their car ( a convertible Volvo no less) and we headed over to the Hotel I had booked (they were in the same one) We had breakfast (again - 3rd time today) and then took a drive down to Venice Beach and walked along the Beach to the Pier and back again. It was bitterly cold and a strong wind got up so we stopped for a coffee to warm up. As it was still early in the morning there were a number of rather strange people on the promenade, many of whom were openly begging for money for weed, there are now 'doctor's' surgery's along the beach who will prescribe cannabis as a 'pain reliever'...hmmm. On the way back to the Hotel we stopped at a Supermarket and got a deli counter lunch – which was huge, all I wanted was the Hot Beef Sandwich but had to also have the 'side of pasta' and 'gherkin strips' which was another meal in it self. Back at the Hotel to chill for a bit and I managed to stay awake to save walking up in the middle of the night, We called in the Seven Eleven store around the corner at around pm and then finally went to bed at about 9pm on the 9th which according to my body-clock was 6PM on the 10th! Note to my friends in BT – Don't let Mr Birch know there is actually a way to get at least 32 hours into a day! :)