Three Days in.....and oh what a TRIP!!!

OK guys, as most of you know - the beginning of the trip was a little hairy and strange - starting with the fact that on Saturday Katherine needed to be taken to the hairdressers as Q had her car at work and she wasn't prepared to take his out of the garage as he had been a particularly CLEVER little male and parked it with cms to spare either side!!! lol

Coming back from Masterton - it began to snow!! For the first time in my life I was driving in snow and it wasn't something I would like to do on a frequent basis - however, we went on down to Greytown to Shoc Choc got our goodies and then of course Katherine wanted to go to the supermarket. By this time, totally stressed out (Because being the master procrastinator that I am and have always been) I hadn't packed - and so in trying to back out of the car park with the sleet coming down and the windows fogged up!! Damn Honda for not putting a rear wiper on my car!! lol Of course I backed into someone that was double parked behind us. FART!! Gritting my teeth and trying to look apologetic when I was feeling anything BUT, I tried to justify my dreadful driving and so, being an older gentleman of some courtesy he agreed not to worry about it.

I finished off my afternoon by driving Katherine to the liquor store - although (don't tell her) within 30 seconds of the request I almost forgot where I was going!! lol Getting home - I did get packed - kinda......I think I talked to Matt - but you know I can't remember now!! No, I'm sure I told him about the little ding in the car!

Anyway, the messages started to come in that the Rimutakas were closed and would be closed the following day so sweating through it, I decided I would catch the train down (the only problem being that it left at 0800 hours...and MY flight didn't leave till 3.00pm in the afternoon. *sigh*.....Katherine's mum, was my heavensent driving angel and not only walked me through the check-in process and sat with me for a couple of hours before she deemed me capable of not wobbling in my determination to get on the plane!

Auckland was a nightmare!! YUCK YUCK YUCK....sorry, any JAFAs out there but the confusion, stringency of customs and security was WAAAAAY too long for a little M.E. person! lol especially when I had already been in alert mode since around 6am. The flight left at around 7.15pm for L.A and I sat next to a nice young American couple. I remembered my sisters words of wisdom not to tell every stranger my story so I didn't talk at all...(well hardly!! lol) The guy in the seat behind ...........he was a whole different kettle of fish!! American accent ok, but the most irritating voice I had ever heard....and he yakked on and on and on!!! Asked the young couple if he would EVER stop talking and they looked slightly embarassed and smiled at me politely. After another 15-20 minutes I announced to them that I would be happy to give the guy one of my sleeping tablets! lol He finally shut up and I did doze. YES, I did warn everyone that I snored!!! I also told them that WHEN I did - NOT to bother to wake me up but I do wonder if there was subtle stuff going on because I kept coming to!

Yahoo.....At L.A. somehow I hadn't been booked in for assistance but somebody else who had, had already left - so I got Courtney (my little Air New Zealand angel!!!) OH WOW, it was SO awesome - she got me through customs (took me through the US not the visitors desk) and carried my cabin luggage all the way.....and made sure I was sitting down at my leap off desk for Paso Robles before she left. Thank you Air New Zealand, Thank you Courtney and Thank YOU Paero for such a wonderful person!!

Anyway, I managed to work out how to phone Matt from the United Airlines terminal before I boarded an old 'bone rattler'...OMG......It was a little plane.....which was okay, but what wasn't ok was it groaned and rattled and I was RIGHT down the back with all the groaning and rattling. A young woman, covered in tattoos (gorgeous looking) got on beside me and then proceeded to use her cellphone until the very last moment on takeoff. Man, I was sweating at that point - thought, I haven't come all this way to be thrown out of the skies by some rebel youngster who wants to live life HER way......and was just about to do a 'Raewyn approach' on her....when she switched off. I am sure there were sweat droplets on my forehead!! lol

Pretty hard landing too coming in! Felt like the plane had a flat tire (tyre)....I am trying to adjust to the American culture here!! lol