The Trip Begins ....

Left home in Chi just after midday on Monday 17 April .... arrived in Auckland at 5.15am on Wednesday 19 April. Hooray for international time travel by the power of flight!!

Back in time to LAX - my least favourite airport; find it very intimidating with the 20 questions at customs/visa control etc ... and it's such pain in the rear to have to go and collect your luggage then immediately hand it back over again to be loaded onto the connecting flight. Overly bureaucratic and safety conscious if you ask me ... and it's not as tightly controlled as they'd like you to think as the guy next to me managed to very easily bypass his bag being rescanned and just handed it over to the Qantas check-in staff!! Pointless!!

Anyway, flight from London to LA wasn't too bad ... general personal space an issue as always, but hey, that's economy air travel!! But I faired much better on the LA to Auckland leg as there weren't any seats in front of us so heaps of room to stretch out and there was just me (window seat) and a lovely Scottish guy, Stewart, on the aisle so we had a free seat between us to spread out the usual detritus of long-haul flying; mags, books, blankets, drinks etc!!

Watched a few movies; 'Syriana' (yes, Dan/Kirsty you're right, a little heavy-going!!), 'In Her Shoes' (Cameron Diaz, Toni Colette), despite it's predictable happy ending, not a bad little movie - perfect flying fodder! and finally, 'Mrs Henderson Presents' with Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins - good stuff!! With Will Young too, bless 'im ;o)