Well, the day of the big adventure arrived, and so did the taxi thank goodness. Tullamarine was understandably busy for the first day of the school holidays, but we were through with plenty of time to spare. Air New Zealand Boeing 777 painted up in Hobbit livery. Even the new in-flight safety video was done as hobbits, with Tolkein's sons in the cast. Spent a couple of hours transit in Auckland, which was decked out in hobbit decorations and merchandise, with enough time to do endless laps of the terminal. Not exactly the largest or most bustling of terminals - their marketing strategy is 'endless space'. Being ever the optimists, there is a campaign on the back of each toilet door asking for you to vote for Auckland and make it the favourite airport in the world. Right. They need to get out a bit more.
Another Air New Zealand Boeing 777 to Los Angeles. A 10 hour flight which is just about nice - dinner, a sleep, breakfast and you're there. However terminal 2 in LAX is old and small, and all the passengers (well, at least the aliens on board) were herded into a small room serving as a holding pen, and they let us out in dribs and drabs into the main immigration hall. Took well over an hour just to wind yourself to the front of the queue. It's quicker to get on a ride at Disneyland! No hassles getting in, though they confiscated our 4 fresh apricots lovingly parcelled at the kid's special request.
A ride on the shuttle to the other side of the airport where Ashley was boarded onto his next United flight to Buffalo via Washington about noon. Freed eventually of excess travellers and excess baggage, Mandy and I took the shuttle to the Hilton and walked a few blocks to the Super 8. It's under the flight path, but really nice and comfy, and I'm sure we won't hear the planes after such a long flight anyway.
After freshening up it was off to Dennys for what is now a bit of a tradition - our first meal in America, though it was really mid afternoon by then. A decent walk to stretch the legs after the long flight, a bit of diary and sorting, and it was in to bed early to catch up on sleep before our very early shuttle and flight tomorrow morning.
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