LA International Airport

After more than 38 hours of traveling -- including two lengthy layovers -- we made it to New Zealand.  Disembarking from the plane down a set of stairs, we walked into the most heavenly view of any airport I've been to in this world, and that is a steadily climbing number.

The mountains alongside were amazing.  Once we hit New Zealand, we were straining from our aisle seats to look out the windows at the snow-capped mountains.  It is a feast for the eyes.  As I joked with the owner of the restaurant where we had dinner last night, someone should make an adventure/fantasy movie in New Zealand!

But, let's back up a long way.  Our friend Don Minnis was kind enough to drive us to the airport early Tuesday (it's Friday morning in NZ as I write this -- and Thursday afternoon back home).  We took Alaska Airlines on a non-eventful flight out -- Carol and I even had an open seat between us in coach.  I watched the movie "Ted" for the first time, which now goes under the heading of laugh out loud guilty pleasure.

Then, we had ten hours to kill before our flight to Sydney.  I had rented a car (you'll know we're in NZ when I note that we "hired" a car).  After getting luggage and the car, we went immediately to the In-N-Out Burger on Sepulveda for our traditional LA lunch.

We then headed over to Venice where we walked along the beach and then laid on our towels in the LA County sun.  We had never been to Venice Beach before, and feel no compulsion to go back -- we prefer Redondo, Hermosa, Manhattan, and even Santa Monica.  Still, it was a better option to hangout there than in the airport for ten hours -- we had plenty of time to kill.

We had dinner at the Tasting Kitchen on Abbot-Kinney Blvd in Venice -- a rising street of restaurants and shops that was fun to walk around.  Thanks to Ron Brownstein for recommending it.  We had dinner promptly at 5:30 so we could rush back to the rental car return and fight our way through the  international check-in process.

Well, that was easy.  We had time to kill -- my biggest fear wasn't realized as we DID have seats on the plane in business class.  I had booked the seats thru a discount website, OneTravel.com, and was relieved to learn it was NOT a scam.  After a several hours wait in the Qantas OneWorld lounge, where Carol refreshed with a shower and I with a glass of Australian Shiraz, we were off for the long flight.

We both slept well, and the flight was uneventful, albeit long.