Or maybe I should be singing "I'm leaving on a jet plane".  I had quite a late night last night at the Dana, figured if I didn't get much sleep I'd sleep most of the way on the long haul from LAX to NZ, a 16 hour flight, and if the plane is on time I will have about 3 hours in Auckland airport waiting for the 7 1/2 hour flight to Perth.

I checked out of the hotel at 11.15 so I would be ready when the bus arrived to drive me to LA, which should be sometime between 11.40 and 12 noon.  It finally arrived at 12.30  but I didn't mind, that was less time for me to be hanging around the airport  There was a young couple from NZ already on the bus, we dropped them off at a hotel across from Disneyland.

We arrived at LAX at 2.30pm, damn, it's times like this I wouldn't have minded a traffic jam or something.  My flight doesn't leave till 10.15 which means I am stuck in this airport now, not much to do here except spend money.  I'll only be doing that though when I get hungry, no room left for any more souvenirs, unless they are very small and thin.

I checked in Mack and MM and was surprised to see they had a combined weight of only 39.6kg, yessss, I'm underweight and they went through security check before I could even get there to see if they needed to be opened.

This airport is crazy.  Once you have checked in, got your boarding pass and had your checked luggage screened, you exit the building, walk up the path a bit and re-enter the building to arrive back where you came from really, only a bit further up.  Here you have your boarding pass and passport  checked, and the queue was quite long.  Once you have gone through this part, you go upstairs and get in line, again, to go through the main security check, you know the one, shoes off, everything in bags and trays, and again this queue looked like the Swan River winding it's way from Freo to Caversham.  There was a guy wandering around giving instructions to take shoes off, laptops out of bags, no bottles etc, and whilst he was doing this a woman was shouting instructions from the other side, which made it very difficult to hear either of  them.  It's a good thing I'm experienced at this now, I am well prepared before it's  my turn to go through the screen, and of course, no beeps.

I've managed to log on to the net but don't have access to a power point, not yet anyway, so this is going to be cut short as the battery is dying.  If I can locate a power point anywhere in this place I'll log back in and finish this story off.  After all, I've still got 4 1/2 hours to kill.

5.30 and I've just had something to eat, found a power point, although I'm sitting on the floor, but it's comfortable enough as long as no one trips over me.  If one of the guys on the end seats here moves out I'll grab their seat, but I bet they won't move now they've seen me setting up camp.

There seems to be movement here at the gate I'm supposed to go through, maybe there is an earlier flight that I'm not on, pity that, but still, it could mean I'll get a seat yet.

I guess this page really is my farewell to my adventure page.  All in all I've had a great time catching up with family, meeting and making friends, and seeing a small part  of the world in such a short time.  Ok, I know it seems like it's been a long time for everyone else, but when you are on the move, packing and unpacking, living out of a suitcase, it goes pretty fast really.  

Again I'd like to thank all the people that put me up and put up with me during my visits.  It has been really appreciated, from England to Canada to America I have been in the company of some very good friends and I look forward to the day that I can come and visit you all again.

Don't give up coming back to these pages, as I will be updating the photo's at some time with comments, that is of course if I can remember what the photo's are of.  At least I know where they are of as they are all in their own named folders so it shouldn't be too hard to work out.

Yes, here I am, back again, just in case you have seen this page and thought it had ended.  In keeping with the consistency of my travels, there is a delay here at LAX.  Boarding was supposed to be at 9.30, have I mentioned that already or not?  At 9.20 the 9pm plane was still sitting at the gate, which was a bit of an indicator that the next flight would be a little late.  At 9.50, with passengers and crew hanging around patiently, well most are, an announcement is made that the plane is being towed around from another parking area at the airport but there is so much traffic it is taking longer than normal to get it here.  Once it does arrive at the gate it will take the crew another 15 - 20 minutes to do a security check so I can't see us getting out of here till closer to 11pm.  I knew I wouldn't get 3 hours in NZ to check the place out.  That's probably a good thing I hear you thinking, there are most likely shops at the airport in Auckland that I would be drawn to as if magnetized.