Day 78, 3rd November 2011. Tauranga, New Zealand

This was literally the biggest day of nothing ever.

Woke up at 9.30am after a very good sleep, I ate some cereal for breakfast and Gary woke up soon after and also had some breakfast.

I had a shower and then spent about an hour unpacking all of our stuff and sorting our bedroom out.

Gary and I literally spent the entire day on the sofa. I made bracelets, we watched TV, we read, we played on the iPad. That was it. I ordered my photopass photos on the Disneyland website, and they had an offer on so I got the CD with all the images for really cheap, I think it was half price or something like that, but I can't remember exactly how much I paid. That was the highlight of my day as we didn't do anything also at all. Gary went for a little drive around the town to see if he could remember where everything was, but I didn't go as I was in the middle of doing our photopass.

Silly Archie laying under the table 

When Fabian and Treena got home from work, they made dinner, but Gary felt a little sick so he laid down for a while. He felt better after a while and him and Fabian played Monopoly on the playstation for a while, Treena had work to do again, and I went to bed early. So yeah, a pretty boring day, I promise it will start to get a little more interesting, after this. We were just so exhausted that we just needed a few days doing nothing.

Day 76/77, 1st/2nd November 2011. LA - New Zealand

Technically day 76/1st November 2011, didn't exist for us, because we jumped forward an entire day on the flight, so I will resume from day 77, the 2nd November 2011.

So after I took the sleeping tablets, it knocked me out for a good 8 hours or so, I was literally so surprised when I woke up and saw what the time was. I never sleep on planes, ever. It was totally the most unexpected thing ever. It was now 9am LA time, on the 1st November. I changed my phone to New Zealand time, and we went back to 5am, but jumped forward a day, to the 2nd November.

We had about 4 hours until we were due to land, so I watched the Hangover 2, I just love those films, so that kept me happy and entertained for a while. I then ate some of the snacks we had bought last night at the airport, and saw how close we were to landing.

Even though it was the longest flight we had ever done, it felt like the shortest. I actually could not believe how much I had slept and how quickly it had gone. Gary had slept quite a bit too, but he watched quite a few films at the start of the flight so he hadn't slept as much as me. I sat listening to my ipod for half an hour and then it was time to land. That was the best and easiest flight I have ever been on!

We had arrived in Auckland, New Zealand. It took us about an hour to go through security and stuff, we had a bit of a panic because we had to fill in the tourist visa card things with the address we were staying at, which we didn't know because we were staying with a friend. 

I don't think I actually mentioned this before, but the reason we were going to New Zealand was to visit one of Gary's very good friend Fabian, and his wife Treena. They used to live over in the UK and Gary and Fabian had worked together and had been the best of friends. Gary was so sad when he had left, so we had always said that we would be coming to New Zealand to visit them. Seeing as we were already half way there in Los Angeles, it would have been silly not to go the other half of the way around the world and come to see them. 

Anyway, Gary managed to text Fabian when we were waiting in line at security to get their home address, so that we would be allowed in the country. As we were walking through the airport, looking out of the windows, my first sight of New Zealand made me thing, 'oh great, it looks just like England'. It really did, it was rainy and everything looked the same as it did back home. I said to Gary what has he done bringing us to a place that's exactly like England. 

Once we were though security and had collected our bags, we came out of the airport to see Fabian waiting for us and Gary was so happy to see him again, it had been about 2 years since they left the UK. They hugged a lot and then we all got in the car to drive to Tauranga, where they live. It was about a 2 hour drive, and luckily, it had brightened up and I got to see that New Zealand was really pretty. It was very green and we had some nice scenery on the drive. 

We arrived at their house at about midday, and it was really nice. Treena was still at work, because she is a teacher, but we got all our stuff in and got settled in our room. We met their doggie, called Archie, who Gary totally loved, and their neighbours dog called Zero, who was only 8 months old but was literally the biggest dog I have ever seen, it was like a bear!

I had a shower because I felt all gross from the plane, and to also wake me up a bit because I was feeling a bit lethargic from the drive. Then the 3 of us went out for lunch. Their town was really nice, we went to a English style pub/restaraunt because all Gary wanted was some baked beans. Gary got a full English breakfast, complete with baked beans, and I got some fish and chips. The food was nice, apart from the fact  that they didn't have real ketchup, it was like watery tomato sauce stuff, and it was gross. 

We then walked around the town for a little while, I got 2 cute skirts and a playsuit in a little clothing store, and we looked at some tattoo shops because Gary wanted to get a tattoo. All the tattoo shops in New Zealand only seemed to do tribal tattoos LOL and that was not what Gary was looking for (thankfully) so he gave up on the tattoo idea and decided to wait until we got home to get it. We then drove down to the beach area that is about 10 minutes from their house, how cool. It was really pretty.

When we got home, we relaxed for a bit, then Treena got home and she was real excited to see us. We went out for dinner to a Mexican place which was so cool. It made me feel like we were back in the USA (no complaints there) and the food was really good, we all had Nacho's. I think I forgot my camera because I have no photos of this night, which is annoying, because it was the cutest little place ever.

After dinner, we went to a supermarket, it was called Countdown, and got some snacks and food. They had  all types of Cadbury's chocolate which made us go a bit crazy and we bought loads. This also brings me to my side story...

Before we left, Fabian asked Gary to pick up a few of these energy bar things that they don't sell in NZ and bring them with him. This meant taking them all around America with us. Gary went out to get them before we left and I expected him to bring back maybe like 10 or 15 of them. He came home with this humungous box of 50 of them. I shouted at him for being so silly saying we did not want to lug them around the USA for 11 weeks, especially considering we had limited packing space. You can imagine how annoyed I was when we had been packing the day before, and we were wasting valuable clothes space with a huge box of bars. But Gary wanted to take them to his friend, and it meant so much to him that I couldn't argue. There was even one night on Trek where we had no food from Mark, and me and Kirsty wanted to eat one of these bars because we were so hungry and Gary wouldn't let us take even one! Anyway, funny story, when we got to New Zealand and Gary gave them to Fabian, they were the wrong ones LOL!!!

Anyway, we got all our food from the supermarket, and the boys rented a film from the rental store opposite, and then we went back home. The boys watched their film, Treena had some work to do and I just played with Gary's iPad for the rest of the night. We finally went to bed at about 11.30pm, I don't even know how we managed to stay up so late. I must have really got a good sleep on the plane. We had a good first day in New Zealand. I didn't really know what to expect from it, and I was still sad from having to leave America, but it seemed like we were going to have a good time here. 

Day 75, 31st October 2011. Anaheim/LAX, last day in the USA

I woke up at 8.15am, feeling sad that we had to leave. I had wanted to lay in for as long as I possibly could, because we would not really be sleeping for another 2 days, but I was wide awake when I woke up. I played on Gary's iPad for a bit, I forgot to add on Saturday we went to an internet cafe to get it all set up, so it was now working. It was also Halloween so I watched a morning TV show with Rachel Ray and Cake Boss making some Halloween cupcakes until Gary woke up.

When Gary woke up, he went downstairs to put some laundry on, and while it was washing, we started packing. It was such a mess, we had way too much stuff and nowhere to put it, literally. There were just piles of clothing everywhere and we had no place to put it all. We had to throw some stuff away, and just about managed to get it all to fit, but it was so stressful. Just as we had got it all in the 3 suitcases, we realized we had forgotten about the laundry that we had downstairs! So Gary went to collect it, and we had to rethink our packing strategy again. Basically, we ended up with 3 cases packed as full as we could get them, and we each had 2 massive pieces of hand luggage, hoping that they would let us take it all on the plane.

We just about managed to get it all finished by 12.00pm, when we had to check out of the room. Our flight wasn't until 11.30pm tonight, so we had quite a wait ahead of us still. When we checked out, and left our luggage at reception, we went to soak up the last of the California sun for a few hours by the pool.

This cool flower looks like a bird

We just stayed there for a few hours, because there was nothing else that we could really do. I read for a bit and listened to my ipod, but all I really was doing was thinking how sad I was to be leaving the USA. We had been here for just under 11 weeks, and they had been the best weeks of my life. It was just crazy to think all of the places we had seen, and the experiences we had experienced, how we had managed to fit it all in to 11 weeks. Those of you who know me well know how much I have always loved the USA, but now it really does feel like home to me, and I would happily go back there any second to live forever, and never come back to England. 

At about 3pm, we got dried off and changed and then went for lunch at Mimi's (where else). It was our final meal in the USA and we ordered our usual favorites to enjoy for the last time. I was so sad that we had to leave America that all I really wanted to do was cry, but I did manage to enjoy my food. When we had finished eating we went to collect our luggage from the hotel reception and waited outside the hotel for the bus to come and pick us up to take us to the airport. 

All of this was my hand luggage..

Last photo in America :(

The bus to LAX took just over an hour, we were some of the only people on the bus and the driver was chatting to us a lot. He was really friendly, and it helped keep my mind off the fact that we were leaving. We arrived at the airport just after 6pm, and looking back now, I'm sad I didn't get a photo of the iconic LAX sign because I really wanted to. 

We checked into our flight, luckily they were just fine with our very heavy suitcases and oversized hand luggage. Then we had a long wait ahead of us before we could even get on the plane, like over 4 hours. Considering the size of LAX airport, we were flying from this tiny little terminal that had hardly any shops or restaraunts, so we had nothing at all to do to pass the time, apart from sit there. We took it in turns, with one person sitting with all the hand luggage, and the other looking around the shops. After about 2 hours of this I knew about every single item that every shop was selling. We wanted to get some food but there was nowhere to get any. At about 10pm before the shops that they did have closed, we bought some snacks for the plane, but there was not much to choose from so we knew we were going to be hungry. I also got one of those rounded pillows that goes around your neck, and some sleeping tablets, hoping they would help us get some rest on the flight.

To pass the rest of the time before we could board the plane, I made loads of bracelets. I can't even put into words how devastated I felt to be leaving America. Spending this much time in the USA is all I have dreamed of for such a long time, and I really did not feel ready to leave. I honestly wasn't homesick one little bit. If somebody would have given me the option right there and then to stay and never leave, and to ever come home again, I would have taken it (still would). I was also feeling really sick and unwell, so that made me feel even worse, I think it was my body's way of telling me that leaving was the biggest mistake.

Then it was finally time to board the plane after the longest airport wait we had ever experienced. It all went smoothly and we took off on time. I genuinely felt so upset and distressed that we were leaving. I really feel like America is home to me, and leaving sucked so bad. Of course we were excited to go to New Zealand, but I really didn't care at that moment where we were going, because I did not want to go anywhere. We had a 13.5 hour flight from LA to Auckland, and it was the longest flight we had ever been on in our lives (so far) so I knew it was not going to be a fun one.

Quite soon after we took off, I took some sleeping tablets, and pretty much fell asleep straight away.

Day 74, 30th October 2011. DCA and Disneyland

It was our last day in Disney today, and we were going to make the most of it. We were going to spend the day doing all of our favorite rides in both parks, and this afternoon we were meeting up with my friend Mari, who I met on a Disney Wedding planning website, we share the same birthday (same year and everything) so that makes me think we were destined to be friends. We also saw on the news that Qantas had gone on strike, who we were meant to be flying with to New Zealand tomorrow. I wasn't too worried about it because I was sure it would work out, and also I wouldn't be too bothered if we had to spend a few more days in the USA.

California Adventure opened at 10am and we were there at the gates waiting for it to open. First stop again was Toy Story Mania, where Gary was still dissapointed with his score. He would only have been happy if he got the very top score of the day, so no matter what, he was going to be unhappy.

We also went on Ariel's Undersea Adventures, Goofy's Sky School and California Screamin' again.

New converse, I like taking photos of dumb stuff like that, plus look how brown my legs are

This is my favorite photo of us in Disney

More cute Bug's Life theming

Cool construction walls

It's a double 'new shoes' shot

Next we went on Monsters Inc again

Then we went on Tower of Terror for one last time, and Soarin', and did some shopping.

Then it was time to leave Disney's California Adventure for the last time to make our way over to Disneyland. I really liked DCA, it was a really cool park, that had some of my favorite rides ever in it. I know it's quite different to all the other Disney parks, and some people don't like it as much, but we really loved it. I am a total loser ad get sad when it's time to say goodbye to a Disney park, so we said goodbye to DCA, hoping that we would be back one day.

Then it was on to Disneyland 

This is the park bench that Walt Disney sat on, when he thought of the idea for Disneyland. He was watching his daughter's on a merry-go-round. Another super cool piece of Disney history.

Woody pumpkin

We went on Snow White's Scary Adventures and the Casey Junior train, as they were the only 2 rides we hadn't yet been on.

The Casey Junior train here was a million times better than the awful Paris one that is about 20 seconds long. The weather was getting so hot as well, we were boiling waiting in line.

After we got off Casey Junior we went into the Village Haus to get a drink and sit inside for a while because it was so hot outside. When we were in there Mari text me saying she was on her way, and would be there in about half an hour, so to pass the time we decided to go on one of Gary's favorite rides, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. Gary's biggest aim in life is to get a top score on this ride, and last night he had been looking up tips on the internet about what targets to hit to get a good score. 

The tips clearly worked and then half way through the ride this happened...

Needless to say, Gary was over the moon, and didn't shoot any more targets for the rest of the ride because his score stopped going up. When we got off, he found out that if he's have kept shooting his score would have gone up to 1million and something, and he would have made it onto the top score board for the day, so he said we had to come back later so he could try again, not even happy with his 999,999!!

It was now time for us to go and meet Mari. We met her right at the park entrance, it was really busy because the parade was going on, but we managed to find each other. We went on Thunder Mountain, and Buzz Lightyear again (Gary didn't manage to get 999,999 again though).

We then all went for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. We had a little wait for a table so we just looked around in the shop while we waited. Of course we had to try on some silly hats!

Mari hadn't been to the Rainforest Cafe for ages, and was really impressed with the food. It was so nice to finally meet her, because we have chatted online for ages, and it was nice that we got along really great in real life. We had a lovely meal, and had loads of fun chatting to Mari comparing how life is different in London and Los Angeles. Mari has an annual pass to Disneyland so gets to visit quite a lot, which made us really jealous! We told her all about our trip and the places we had been, and also surprised her with the news that we were married!

When we left the Rainforest, it was time to say goodbye to Mari, I really appreciate that she made the effort to come and meet us, it was so nice of her, and great to finally meet her in real life. We thanked her for being kind enough to come and see us, and hopefully one day we will meet again.

By now it was a little chilly, so I got my jeans out of Gary's bag and went into the bathrooms to change before we went back in to Disneyland.

First stop was Buzz Lightyears Astro Blasters (again) and Gary still didn't get 999,999 again, but at least he had got it once and he could be happy about that. We didn't do any more rides, we just walked around soaking up the Disneyland atmosphere.

Then it was time for the fireworks, so we found a place on Main Street to watch them. 

The fireworks were lovely, they were called 'Remember, dreams do come true' which was definitely something I was feeling, with all the dreams that had come true in my life recently on the trip, and having just got married. Of course it was the last night we had in Disneyland so I felt all emotional about it. The show was kind of similar to Wishes with some of the same music, and they were narrated by Julie Andrews, which was cool, I love her.

After the fireworks were over, I was on the search for a final frozen lemonade. We literally searched the entire park before finding one stall that was still open selling them in Fantasyland. I LOVE frozen lemonade's, they are my favorite Disney treat, so I wanted to have one last one while we watched Fantasmic. 

Frozen Lemonade in hand, we went to line up for the 2nd showing of Fantasmic. The set up for Fantasmic here is weird compared to the Hollywood Studios set up in Orlando. We had to sit on the floor LOL. But we still got a great view, although all my photos came out crap.

It is basically the same as the Orlando show with a few minor differences, there are a few different scenes. It is such a lovely show that has all the things that are best about Disney in it, and we enjoyed it very much.

This show always makes me feel emotional, and when it was finished, it meant it was time to leave Disneyland for the last time, and I had a little cry because I didn't want it to be over. We had such an amazing time in Disneyland, and I was so glad that I had finally got to visit. It was also our last night in the USA as we were flying to New Zealand tomorrow night, so it felt like it was the perfect way to end nearly 11 weeks in America. I did not want to leave at all, but we had to, and on the way out I took one last night photo of Main Street...

                           

It was quite late when we got back to the hotel, nearly midnight I think. We turned on the TV and saw that the Qantas strike was over, so that was another concern off our minds. All we did was shower and fall straight asleep because we knew we wouldn't have a very good sleep tomorrow night as we would be on the plane.