I had to be at Christchurch International Airport at 6:30 am on August 9th for my three hour flight to Sydney. My parents took me to the airport after I had about three hours sleep the night beforehand, and my good friends Geoff and Ollie also came to see me off (cheers guys!). It was a pretty sad feeling leaving Christchurch and my family and friends behind, but I will be back to visit, and I'm sure I will live there again one day.
 |
| Just about to walk into the departure lounge |
In Sydney I had around three hours wait in the airport, and after a brief moment of panic where I thought I had lost my passport (it was in my pocket!), I was winging my way on a 13 hour flight to Los Angeles. The flight was good, but I only got around one hour of sleep. This I blame on the guy who I was sitting beside. We were sharing four seats between us and it turned out he was a really cool dude, so we had a few beers together, watched movies, and talked crap for most of the flight.
Arriving in Los Angeles after travelling back in time (it was now only 11:30 am, August 9th), I was extremely tired, but knew I needed to stay up to try get my internal clock adjusted to US time. I caught a shuttle to my youth hostel and went for a walk along Santa Monica beach and pier. A lot of people had told me that LA is overrated, dirty, and the traffic is awful. Well, I mostly disagree. Santa Monica especially was really nice, and there were impressive street performers every 30 metres as you walked through the outdoor shopping malls. That night I finally managed to get six hours sleep despite the snoring of my youth hostel roommates from Brazil.
 |
| Santa Monica pier on Sunday afternoon. You should have seen how crowded the beach was! |
The next day I went on a tour of the city on the Rasta Bus with a few other tourists. We saw Malibu Beach, lots of movie stars' homes in Beverly Hills, Greystone Mansion, the Hollywood Sign in Griffith Park, the Walk of Fame, Rodeo Drive, and a few other things. It was a pretty good tour which took in most of the important things you would want to see in a day as a tourist in LA. That evening I went for a run along Venice Beach and then attempted to get some sleep before my 5 am shuttle to LAX. But I got around three hours sleep that night due to the amazing snoring concerto of two of my roommates mixed with the effects of jetlag.
 |
| Me and the Los Angeles Rasta Bus driver |
The flights to Baton Rouge were relatively uneventful although I once again didn't sleep on them at all. I did have a change made to my flight at the last minute and so I flew directly to Dallas, Texas before Baton Rouge, instead of stopping in Phoenix, Arizona on the way. Because the airline did this they also decided it would be a good idea to give me $400 of airline vouchers. Bet you guys back in New Zealand wish that Jetstar had this level of customer service! I think I'll use these vouchers to visit New York during the Christmas holidays. Also, the Dallas airport is absolutely huge! As they say, everything is bigger in Texas...
More to come soon on my arrival in Baton Rouge and my first impressions of the city and LSU...
