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I arrived at LAX airport about 3 hours before my flight was due to depart at 1145pm.
At checkin the American woman working for Qantas said that I must provide documentary evidance that I would be leaving NZ within 6 months of arrival before she would give me my boarding pass. I explained to her that being a British citizen I don't need to have an outwards ticket booked unlike American Citizens but she was a bit of a b**** and wasn't kistening to a word I was saying and wouldn't give me my boarding pass. I found an email on my phone which had my itinerary which she finally accepted and gave me my boarding pass.
At the departure gate they were boarding from the back forwards 10 rows at a time. They called form row 75 all the way down to row 26 and had already called first and business class. I had row 24 on my boarding pass and there were only about six of us left sitting at the gate waiting to be called, this is when I egan to panic a bit wondering if there had been some sort of f*** up. I went to the gate and had my boarding pass scanned and was told to board the aircraft. I handed my boarding pass to the stewardess onboard who told my to head to the left. The left?
I wandered down to row 24 and really did think I was in the wrong place. I could see row 24 in front of me but I was standing in business classand was sure there must have been a cockup. I kinda hung around for a minute not sure if I should sit down as it would be totally embarrassing if I was told I was sitting in someone elses seat and was askied to move.
I looked more than out of place with my shorts and Celtic top on and a little whiff of BO.
The stewardess came along and offered me a glass of Champagne which I grabbed with two hands thinking that I'd make the most of it before I was asked to move.
Someone I had managed to get a free upgrade into Business Class even though I hadn't even asked for one and was travelling on a round the world ticket. I was chatting to the guy next to me telling him what had happened and said that I had only paid US$3000 for my round the world ticket which almost made him choke since he had paid almost the same just to go from LA to Auckland. Smug look on ma puss for the rest of the flight.
The time difference between NZ and LA is 20 so it only really works out to 4 hours given that you miss a day when you travel there. I got the seat fully stretched out into a bed and slept for 9.5 hours straight to wake up to breakfast and an episode of Family Guy then we landed. By far the best flight I have ever had!!
I filled in all the immigration forms onboard the plane and handed them over with my passport at immigration . The woman didn't even look at me never mind say hello. She seen it was a British passport and just stamped it and let me through. It probably took about 10 seconds to get through immigration. So much for what the b**** in LA had said.
I arrived in Auckland at about 9am and jumped onto the bus from the airport to the city centre. It was feckin freezing when I arrived as it was only 10C, considering I had been in San Diego the week before where it had been 106F.
Auckland is quite a nice citywith most things based around Queen Street. I did the harbour tour which was quite good and had great views of the city and the Sky Tower.
A third of the population of NZ lives in Auckland. There is a lrage Asian community and the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world. You wouldn't think Auckland was so large as it always seems to be very quiet and boring. Even the bars in the city centre at the weekends are pretty empty.
Time to leave here me thinks.
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