G & J away from home

Monday, 20 April

Short Version

Wake up in Auckland, go to sleep on the plane, wake up in Los Angeles, go to sleep in Laguna Niguel.


Long Version

Today we fly out from Auckland to Los Angeles and our four night 'stop over' in Laguna Niguel with Gary's cousin, Pete, and Pete's wife Marilynne.

To Los Angeles

Our flight leaves at 3.45 in the afternoon, somewhat earlier than the flights we've taken on the last two trips but I don't suppose that will make much difference.  After all, with 12 hours 15 minutes flying time we're still bound to feel the need to have a sleep before we land in Los Angeles.

At least there will be no rental car for Gary to have to get in and start driving this time.  Since this is just a chance to visit with Pete and Marilynne we're getting a shuttle to their place (about an hour's driving away without traffic and detours).  We're arriving at 9am, picking up the shuttle about midday and should be settled in with P&M by afternoon tea time.

No doubt sometime over the next few days we'll head down the beach walk and take the now traditional photo:

Traditional photo at the beach

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A few photos from the Auckland to LA (very long) day:

Gary off to departures

We checked in nice and early, of course, since the shuttle (predictably) came quarter of an hour early.  The only problem we had was the question about our address in the US.  We knew the street name and number and the town but not the zip code, though eventually Gary found this on his phone.

A few months ago Gary had attended a travel evening run by the travel agents and received passes to the Koru Lounge so that's where we headed after checking and being there solved the problem of organising lunch!

Gary in the Koru Lounge

Boarding was right on time and the plane got away on time too.  When we had been checking in we discovered we had been moved from the seats the travel agent had slotted us into (one of the two-seat sets down the very back of the aircraft) which wasn't too much of a surprise because anybody who pays the fee to get a specific seat - those seats - would have bumped us out of them and back onto some sort of auto-selecting seating plan.  But while we were checking that we noticed there were a couple of spare seats of the aircraft so we purchases a 'twin seat' for $99.  This means the empty spot is moved shuffled around until it appears between our seats.  The boarding passes show Gary in 61A and me in 61C - and extra seat we bought is 61B.

Buying a Twin Seat

This time it didn't work quite as well on other flights as the armrests only lifted part of the way up!  First time we'd come across that.  All the same, it was a great use of $99 as Gary had plenty of room for his legs and was able to stretch out when he wanted to sleep.

Pre take-off photos

Gary did manage to have quite a long sleep during the middle of the 12.5 hour flight but I only had a small nap or two - one of which was during the landing at LA.  I had been awake for a very long time, after all!

Cabin lights dimmed, watching a movie

Getting into the US was exceptionally quick with automated identity checking if passengers were on ESTA visa waivers and had been to the US since 2008.  We qualified for that and so popped our passports into the machine, had one hand of fingerprints checked and our photo taken and were off. (To be fair there weren't very big queues anywhere, not like some of the times we've arrived at LAX.)

No trouble finding the Super Shuttle outside the terminal building and that got us to Pete and Marilynne's place with only two stops on the way.  Much more restful for Gary than leaping off the plane after such a long flight and having to start driving on the 'wrong' side of the road.


Read on the flight: Ms. Rapscott's Girls by Elise Primavera
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