The 12th of November dawned brilliantly fine again as we drove north-east from Oceano through extremely dry hill country obviously suffering from a prolonged drought. On our trip across the plains areas, where irrigation water was available ,we saw fruit and nut crops growing on a huge scale. We passed through the uninspiring Bakersfield ,and as we drove further into the mountains the scenery changed to vast, dry desert with the only vegetation being tumbleweeds...

We touched down in San Francisco, after an 11-hour flight with Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic, not a patch on Air New Zealand. We flew over San Francisco bay in a cloudless sky and the harbour a millpond. Our first problem was that we couldn't get all our baggage in the Chrysler 300, Id booked, but after a bit of negotiating we ended up with a huge 7 seater Chrysler, and headed off happily, trying to find the house that my cousins Will and Liam had very kind...