Los Angeles, 5 March 09 (twice !!!)
Our last day, 5 March, was actually quite an unusual experience as we got to live it twice... and it's not often you can say that. But you can do just that if you cross over the date line, as we did.
So on our 'first' 5 March, in NZ, we woke up at 8am, had a lovely breakfast, packed leisurely, said bye to Viv & Mischief and then headed straight to Arrow Town as we really fancied having lunch there as it is a 1o/10 location by our books. It's ever so quaint there and the little cafes are just exquisite. We had a gourmet pizza and yet another healthy salad (lots of pumpkin, yummy).
Arrow Town is just 12 mins away from the airport (we'd timed it as we'd passed it to get there) but on the way back, we took the wrong turn (due to their annoyingly consistent and distinctive lack of crucial sign posting) and ended up doing an extra 10 miles. It was a bit of a panic then as we just got to the airport hall when they said the flight was boarding but we did make it. 1h40 later, we were in Auckland and having a quick bite to eat with Robyn & Paul again (with Melanie, their little girl, as a bonus). He'd brought me over a fantastic photo book that he'd put together on their trip to France & Italy last summer and I really enjoyed his style and was seriously envious at his correct exposures in difficult lighting conditions when I fail so miserably at this technique.
We then got on our flight to L.A. at 10.45pm local time and set off pretty much bang on time. The best feature of Air NZ is that not only you have an amazing 80 movies to choose from but you also can start viewing from the moment you sit down. I don't recall any other airline being able to give you that much flexibility. And you can FF and RW and pause, etc. So if you are the first to board and the plane doesn't take off for another 30 mins, you've already watched 1/3 of a movie by the time it takes off. Great. It was really good for that. And their veggie meals were delicious and served 15 mins before anyone else's, so, by the time I'd finished my meal, other people were just getting theirs so I could beat them to the toilets to clean my teeth and jump the queues.
I managed to sleep a good 5-6 hours out of 12, courtesy of one sleeping pill, so that was pretty good. I also made time to watch 3 movies too and then we got to L.A., on 5 March again, at 1.30pm. (i.e. almost 12 hours before we took off !!! cooool).
On our 2nd 5 March we checked into La Hacienda, a very pretty (and reasonable) hotel with a Spanish feel to it, just 1 mile away from the airport (free shuttle every 15 mins) with an outdoor heated pool (but it was too windy to be in 'swimming' mood) and then headed to Hollywood by metro (a longer than expected 1h30 journey with 3 changes up to Hollywood Highlands -- they really are NOT au fait with public transport in the USA, let's face it... only 3 lines, to cover the whole of L.A., crazy if you ask me) and went to see the Walk of Fame and Chinese Theatre.
I hadn't been to L.A. for 15 years (1993, again, I did do a lot in 1993 !!!) and my camera was broken that day (recovering from a flooding experience on a Disney ride) so it was my big chance to take some photos of the place. But though that particular bit was fun, there wasn't much else to look at. L.A. is simply too spread out and I was also seriously cold too in my little short sleeved dress when it must have dropped to 12C when the sun went down. I did have a light cardigan and light raincoat on top too but I was still frozen. So we didn't hang around on the streets for too long, we just looked at the footprints & hand prints of famous people and then headed for the California Kitchen & Pizza, which was a great recommendation from Janet, who had been staying at Le Renaissance (next door) 5 years earlier when she was reporting on the Oscars. The menu choice was dazzling... and the portion sizes were scary. Needless to say we only had 'half salads' or 'starter sizes' and it was still almost too much. A soup in a 'cup' was in fact 'in a bowl', etc. Thankfully Janet had reminded me before I placed my order that a 'half portion' in CA is the equivalent of a 1.5 portion by UK standards. Half portions are incredibly good value for money though so our meal in itself was very cheap, but our cab to get back to our hotel was a painful $70 (and more with tips). Eeek. When you think it costs $50 a day to hire a car, cabs are just terrible value for money (I plain refuse to use them in the UK unless I have no other options). I came over to the USA with $180 for 2 days and I think we spent $120 of those on cab fares alone. Crazy.
We had an early night and woke up slowly at 9am as it was only 6am in our heads... we decided to head for Manhattan Beach, only 5 mins away by cab --- but still $15 to get there. It was a pretty enough beach, with very smooth golden sand and we found a restaurant for lunch that overlooked it. And then we headed for our hotels to pick up our luggage (check out time at La Hacienda is a decent noon but we had left at 10.30am for the beach) and head for the airport. Annoyingly we missed the free shuttle bus by 5 mins so it was another $10 to go just one mile for 4 minutes. Seriously insane. I definitely could not afford to travel to the USA alone since I don't / won't drive (anymore).
The flight was also bang on time, 4pm sharp we were up in the air, different movies too as it was now March (so: new selection on latest releases). In fact, as it was a day time flight I just spent 10H watching movies -- more than I'd ever do in a whole month in the UK pretty much due to lack of time / interest. I totally loved 'Changeling' though and felt it should have won 'best movie' at the recent Oscars. A truly haunting film, and a shockingly true story. I'd highly recommend it.
Coming back to the UK was very odd but necessary ! :) At least it was sunny and 12C when we landed so it helped as I needed my two hands for my 2 suitcases (one being my hand-luggage - i.e. the cameras). However, as good old London would have it, half of the tube lines were down for repair works. So instead of one change to get home, Janet had 4. It usually takes me 1H30 door-to-door, but it took me 2H30 this time... thankfully we'd landed 45mins early to make up for this but still, after a long flight, you could really do without the extra hassle, thank you very much.
I was pretty dopey the whole of Saturday and just got on with my hand-washing and other boring tasks. Nothing in the fridge to eat so opened a tuna tin and that was it. All I needed really as my stomach was on NZ time (i.e. +13H). I managed to stay awake till 8pm (which was pretty remarkable considering that when we landed at 9.50am I hadn't slept for 26 hours already) and woke up gently at 8am today (Sunday). Phew.
Now I've finished updating my blog for NZ (had no internet access in Fjiordland), I've got to sort out my paperwork to apply for my Visa for China just 5 weeks away. Having now reviewed my NZ photos, I was quite disappointed. On my PC they looked a lot bleaker than on my camera screen. Colourless almost. Not sure why, but the prints I'd taken in 1993 actually looked a lot nicer technically - superb light and exposure. Really sharp with great natural colours. And I certainly don't have time to touch up 1,700 photos so that it looks as good as I remembered... Sugar.
On this (disappointing) note, I'll love you & leave you... back in 5 weeks, God willing.
Our last day, 5 March, was actually quite an unusual experience as we got to live it twice... and it's not often you can say that. But you can do just that if you cross over the date line, as we did.
So on our 'first' 5 March, in NZ, we woke up at 8am, had a lovely breakfast, packed leisurely, said bye to Viv & Mischief and then headed straight to Arrow Town as we really fancied having lunch there as it is a 1o/10 location by our books. It's ever so quaint there and the little cafes are just exquisite. We had a gourmet pizza and yet another healthy salad (lots of pumpkin, yummy).
Arrow Town is just 12 mins away from the airport (we'd timed it as we'd passed it to get there) but on the way back, we took the wrong turn (due to their annoyingly consistent and distinctive lack of crucial sign posting) and ended up doing an extra 10 miles. It was a bit of a panic then as we just got to the airport hall when they said the flight was boarding but we did make it. 1h40 later, we were in Auckland and having a quick bite to eat with Robyn & Paul again (with Melanie, their little girl, as a bonus). He'd brought me over a fantastic photo book that he'd put together on their trip to France & Italy last summer and I really enjoyed his style and was seriously envious at his correct exposures in difficult lighting conditions when I fail so miserably at this technique.
We then got on our flight to L.A. at 10.45pm local time and set off pretty much bang on time. The best feature of Air NZ is that not only you have an amazing 80 movies to choose from but you also can start viewing from the moment you sit down. I don't recall any other airline being able to give you that much flexibility. And you can FF and RW and pause, etc. So if you are the first to board and the plane doesn't take off for another 30 mins, you've already watched 1/3 of a movie by the time it takes off. Great. It was really good for that. And their veggie meals were delicious and served 15 mins before anyone else's, so, by the time I'd finished my meal, other people were just getting theirs so I could beat them to the toilets to clean my teeth and jump the queues.
I managed to sleep a good 5-6 hours out of 12, courtesy of one sleeping pill, so that was pretty good. I also made time to watch 3 movies too and then we got to L.A., on 5 March again, at 1.30pm. (i.e. almost 12 hours before we took off !!! cooool).
On our 2nd 5 March we checked into La Hacienda, a very pretty (and reasonable) hotel with a Spanish feel to it, just 1 mile away from the airport (free shuttle every 15 mins) with an outdoor heated pool (but it was too windy to be in 'swimming' mood) and then headed to Hollywood by metro (a longer than expected 1h30 journey with 3 changes up to Hollywood Highlands -- they really are NOT au fait with public transport in the USA, let's face it... only 3 lines, to cover the whole of L.A., crazy if you ask me) and went to see the Walk of Fame and Chinese Theatre.
I hadn't been to L.A. for 15 years (1993, again, I did do a lot in 1993 !!!) and my camera was broken that day (recovering from a flooding experience on a Disney ride) so it was my big chance to take some photos of the place. But though that particular bit was fun, there wasn't much else to look at. L.A. is simply too spread out and I was also seriously cold too in my little short sleeved dress when it must have dropped to 12C when the sun went down. I did have a light cardigan and light raincoat on top too but I was still frozen. So we didn't hang around on the streets for too long, we just looked at the footprints & hand prints of famous people and then headed for the California Kitchen & Pizza, which was a great recommendation from Janet, who had been staying at Le Renaissance (next door) 5 years earlier when she was reporting on the Oscars. The menu choice was dazzling... and the portion sizes were scary. Needless to say we only had 'half salads' or 'starter sizes' and it was still almost too much. A soup in a 'cup' was in fact 'in a bowl', etc. Thankfully Janet had reminded me before I placed my order that a 'half portion' in CA is the equivalent of a 1.5 portion by UK standards. Half portions are incredibly good value for money though so our meal in itself was very cheap, but our cab to get back to our hotel was a painful $70 (and more with tips). Eeek. When you think it costs $50 a day to hire a car, cabs are just terrible value for money (I plain refuse to use them in the UK unless I have no other options). I came over to the USA with $180 for 2 days and I think we spent $120 of those on cab fares alone. Crazy.
We had an early night and woke up slowly at 9am as it was only 6am in our heads... we decided to head for Manhattan Beach, only 5 mins away by cab --- but still $15 to get there. It was a pretty enough beach, with very smooth golden sand and we found a restaurant for lunch that overlooked it. And then we headed for our hotels to pick up our luggage (check out time at La Hacienda is a decent noon but we had left at 10.30am for the beach) and head for the airport. Annoyingly we missed the free shuttle bus by 5 mins so it was another $10 to go just one mile for 4 minutes. Seriously insane. I definitely could not afford to travel to the USA alone since I don't / won't drive (anymore).
The flight was also bang on time, 4pm sharp we were up in the air, different movies too as it was now March (so: new selection on latest releases). In fact, as it was a day time flight I just spent 10H watching movies -- more than I'd ever do in a whole month in the UK pretty much due to lack of time / interest. I totally loved 'Changeling' though and felt it should have won 'best movie' at the recent Oscars. A truly haunting film, and a shockingly true story. I'd highly recommend it.
Coming back to the UK was very odd but necessary ! :) At least it was sunny and 12C when we landed so it helped as I needed my two hands for my 2 suitcases (one being my hand-luggage - i.e. the cameras). However, as good old London would have it, half of the tube lines were down for repair works. So instead of one change to get home, Janet had 4. It usually takes me 1H30 door-to-door, but it took me 2H30 this time... thankfully we'd landed 45mins early to make up for this but still, after a long flight, you could really do without the extra hassle, thank you very much.
I was pretty dopey the whole of Saturday and just got on with my hand-washing and other boring tasks. Nothing in the fridge to eat so opened a tuna tin and that was it. All I needed really as my stomach was on NZ time (i.e. +13H). I managed to stay awake till 8pm (which was pretty remarkable considering that when we landed at 9.50am I hadn't slept for 26 hours already) and woke up gently at 8am today (Sunday). Phew.
Now I've finished updating my blog for NZ (had no internet access in Fjiordland), I've got to sort out my paperwork to apply for my Visa for China just 5 weeks away. Having now reviewed my NZ photos, I was quite disappointed. On my PC they looked a lot bleaker than on my camera screen. Colourless almost. Not sure why, but the prints I'd taken in 1993 actually looked a lot nicer technically - superb light and exposure. Really sharp with great natural colours. And I certainly don't have time to touch up 1,700 photos so that it looks as good as I remembered... Sugar.
On this (disappointing) note, I'll love you & leave you... back in 5 weeks, God willing.
posted by Sylvie at 5:07 PM
<< Home