The Start of our Journey

So first time we have attempted this whole blogging thing so you will have to bear with us.

Our journey started bright and early on August 14th at the Calgary airport. Our first flight was to Seattle home of the first Starbucks. Even though she didn't tell me, I know roberta was hoping to run into McSteamy or McDreamy but no such luck for her. After this brief stopover we headed onto Los Angeles home of the Stanley Cup winning Kings. We had a 12hour layover here and were quite happy to find out that we were able to leave the airport to explore this concrete jungle. After talking with some of the locals we decided to go hit up Santa Monica beach.

 

Our luggage had been sent straight through to New Zealand but we both had some shorts with us so we spent most of the day just relaxing on the beach. We were unable to locate any celebs as we spied at the people walking past under the cover of our shiny lenses. (well made that sound a little creepy!) 

 

 

After a few naps on the beach and when we were ready to go exploring some more we headed north up the beach walkway towards Venice Beach aka Muscle Beach. There was definitely a few more characters down this way which added to the entertainment as well as some interesting shops. being young and not having very many wrinkles we did not have to hit up this place:

 



but it was quite convenient for those who were needing it.

 

After watching the sun go down on this cool beach we decided that it was time to head back to LAX to hop on the overnight plane to Nadi, Fiji. It was quite a huge plane that we boarded with an upstairs and was filled right up. We were lucky enough to both get middle seats which allowed for a really good sleep. Not. In a sleepy haze, Roberta flipped up her table which knocked over her cup full of wine. Good thing it was white. There was quite an unhappy lady sitting in front of us that was wearing an angry birds t-shirt. Roberta and I concluded that she would have been much happier if she had been wearing her Care Bear shirt.

 

Ten hours later we arrived in Nadi, Fiji and three hours after that we headed to Auckland, New Zealand. Our bags all arrived safely except for our brand new sleeping bags that were strapped to the outside. Note to self don't strap anything to the outside of your bags. We talked to baggage claims who said it happened quite often and there was nothing they could do because they were not labelled. that's when I replied "So do you guys have a bunch of sleeping bags in the back then?" The guy disappeared for a few moments and then returned with two newer sleeping bags and said here you go. Some people may think that this is gross but hey we are cheap and all they needed was a wash.

 

The last wait of six hours of waiting to board a plane to Palmerston North (where Roberta has a lucom position at the vet school) seemed like a lifetime as we were tired and were in need of a shower.

 

Finally 42 hours after we started this journey we were at our destination. It was 8:30 at night on August 16th so we promptly showered and hit the sac.