Babes, Bikes and Beer!

Our final leg in New Zealand was kicked off by a frustrating bus ride into the heart of Auckland (I was left waiting about 50 mins and Mike about 30!).

When we eventually met up there seemed to be a great gathering of people on one of the main high streets, all the way along on both sides of the road (which I thought was a little bizarre considering there was only usual city traffic moving along). We walked around for about an hour or so and more and more people were turning up all looking up the hill, apparently there was going to be some sort of parade at lunchtime. Well after grabbing a quick subway Mike and I took our place by the road and awaited this parade not quite sure what to expect. First off there was a band of police (getting slightly anxious now), then a protest group campaigning against pornography (just what sort of parade is this??). Then about 10 mins after the protest we heard the low revving of some motorbike engines just up the road, and as the drove past we realized quite why the crowds had gathered. Let me put it this way, there were lots of bikes, and on the back of each was a glamour model not wearing anything from the waist up (it was a rather chilly day as well)!! When I went out to explore the sights and sounds of Auckland that was not one of the views that I had in mind (not that I object of course ;) ).

The rest of the day was spent getting an excellent view of the city from the Skytower (at last I have conquered the two towers!!!) we considered jumping off the tower but a storm pulled in whilst we were at the top, jumping off is one thing, jumping off in strong winds and rain is another!

We then went our separate ways and headed back to our respective families. On the last day of our stay I was invited out to my cousin's (Naomi) husband's (Anthony) brother's (Daniel) birthday gig. They are all Croatians, and although I'm relatively used to being the shortest person around it's not usually by such a large margin. Anthony is 6.4 and the shortest of his 5 siblings, and that's not mentioning the rest of the family! Still I knew I had the whole of the pacific to fly over the next day (Canada here we come) so I did the sensible thing and stayed up till 4 in the morning and got completely and totally wasted :D, I can always sleep on the plane!

Well an lie in and lots of water later, plus a great final breakfast with my family and I felt just about luke warm again :/ I said my farewells and thank yous and while Mike was doing the same with his family I wandered off to find an All Blacks shirt. My plan of sleeping on the plane utterly failed, a 11:30hr flight and not a wink - still I did manage to watch a load of films and TV shows. Due to a longer flight time we couldn't get our original connection at LA airport which meant that we had about 3hrs to kill. Unlike Cape Trib, however, when those 3 hours were up we were not pining for more time there, quite the opposite, it was quite possibly the most infuriating, intrusive, unpleasant and downright rude place I have ever been.

In fact I think Mike will enjoy picking it apart far more than me, I don't want to risk flashbacks either. So look out for Mike's: 'Guide to Surviving LAX'.