Day 1 - Off we go

One of the "advantages" of flying eastward to USA etc. is that one gets to have a Groundhog Day experience.  So Thursday #1 saw us drive down to Fiona's with some trepidation as protesters against the signing of the TPPA were earlier blocking roads around the city and creating major traffic headaches.  However no problems and we had a lovely chicken dinner (this has significance later!) along with my new favourite  dessert Chocolate  on Chocolate  on Chocolate.

I had tried to check in on line with Air New Zealand earlier in the morning, but it was a  waste of time as we did not have onward reservation.  Eventually found someone to check us in and then found that self service bags check-in would also not accept us.  Apparently the US don't trust us to do it, so an airline employee had to assist.  Bearing in mind that most checking in at that time were going through the States, one would have thought that  some prewarning/more staff would have helped.

Boarding the plane was painless except that is becoming so noticeable that those of us in "cattle" class now have to weave our way through 4 compartments of business & premium economics.  We were lucky with our seats at the rear of the 1st economy section.  We had 4 other cruisers with us and more fortunately they arranged to move after takeoff so we had the whole centre row to ourselves. We actually managed to get some sleep.  Chicken was the dish of the day!

We must have had a tail wind as the flight was just 11.5 hours.  Having heard all the horror stories of LA airport we were prepared for the worst, but found it all very pleasant and we were out within half an hour.  The disadvantage of that was that we had about the same amount of time standing in the shade waiting for the shuttle.  The weather was clear & sunny but quite chilly. 

Wound our way through LA out to Santa Monica, where we are staying at Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel.  Lovely, just one small block back from the beach.  We got upgraded to an ocean view room on the 8th floor, which has been recently renovated .  Our room looks north along the beach and overlooks the Santa Monica pier.  Absolutely magnificent - particularly last night with the ferris wheel illuminated with multi patterned LED lights.

We were a little tired, so had dinner in the hotel.  Good, but not cheap.  Vivian had salmon, which surprisingly was from Iceland.  I would have expected Alaskan.  I had .. chicken again.

This morning we got up early and did a big walk along the pier and into Santa Monica, where we found a lovely place for breakfast.  It did take them 2 goes to get our coffee right however.  After that we walked south along the promenade as far as Venice Beach.  It's a good couple of miles each way and whilest it was a chilly 10 when we left it is currently  (11.30) 24.  Another stunning day and love,your people.  We need to check out by midday and have the shuttle down to the port booked.  Hopefully the next instalment will give first impressions of Queen Victoria.