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What a long trip! It didn't start too well. Our fight from Wellington to Auckland was delayed. While waiting at the gate, an orchestra entertained us (they were on the flight). In Auckland we had just enough time for a quick bite to eat before boarding our (delayed) flight to San Francisco. The next thirteen hours were spent eating (I enjoyed dinner), watching movies and trying to sleep in the upright position. We were lucky that there weren't any people behind us so we could recline easily. The on board facilities were great and we enjoyed the flight. The airline advised that we had missed our connecting flight to New York and that we were rebooked on a later flight.

So began the longest 3 hours of our lives as we stood in a queue with about 2000 others to get through immigration. Despite the long queue, they only had 5 agents working and the whole process was quite frustrating. When we finally cleared customs we made a quick change into cooler clothing and checked our bags in for the next flight.

With 4 hours to kill, we decided to take the train down to the waterfront and see a bit of San Francisco. We walked along the waterfront reminiscing about our last trip there. It seemed so familiar. We had a bite to eat at Starbucks and continued on until we got to Pier 23 which was our favourite spot from last time. Poppy indulged in mini donuts (a treasured memory from before) and we soaked up the atmosphere. San Fran in summer is so much nicer and was bustling with people. There was an entertainer on the stage in the centre. He was a juggler and a gymnast. He did some fascinating tricks while stand on long poles and then did one hand hand stands at the top of the poles. I couldn't watch! Poppy was taking notes and wants to incorporate some of his moves in her acro dancing!

We couldn't be bothered walking all the way back to the train station so we hired a pedicab - cart pulled by a bicycle. That was great fun and a perfect way to end our little sojourn into town.

We caught the train back to the airport but then I misread the map and we got off two stations too early. Luckily there is a train every 20 minutes so we made it back in time for the next part of our journey.

The security for a domestic flight over here is nuts! It was harder to get through than the security to fly here from Auckland. We had to go through a large metal detector. You had to remove your jackets, shoes and everything from your pockets (even tissues and scraps of paper). Those went through the xray machine. Then you had to stand in a portal (similar to the thing that Scottie used to beam people up in). You had to stand with your feet apart and your arms in the "don't shoot" position while the machine scanned you for weapons and explosives. Obviously my arms looked shady because they had to pat them down. Mercina looked like a terrorist. They stopped her and gave her a full body pat down. She was quite horrified by it all. Poppy was offended because they kept asking her if she was under 12. In the end, they decided we were harmless and let us through. Needless to say, our flight to New York was delayed!

We were also seated apart from one another for the 6 hour flight to New York. There was no food and while they provided a screen for entertainment, you had to buy headphones if you didn't have your own.

We landed at 6:15am in New York. Coming out of the plane we walked through a large shopping mall full of restaurants and shops. It was quite dizzying. Andrew was waiting for us and we got our luggage from the carousel. We were finally here!

He took us directly into town to get some breakfast as we hadn't eaten properly in some time. Then, as it was really quiet in town and the sky was clear, we went to the Empire State Building. We rode to the 80th floor to see the panoramic view of New York. It is huge. The land is really flat but the skyscrapers are incredible. There are so many and they are so tall. We could see all the famous landmarks. The Statue of Liberty is tiny! Central Park is huge and very green.

Andrew has just arrived and we are going out for dinner. Will continue to post after dinner. Hopefully we will figure out how to get photos onto the laptop to add themもっと詳しく