Time Travel

---

I finished off New Zealand -- and all international travel -- in Auckland. Around New Zealand, it has a bad reputation and it gets unanimous negative reviews. But I didn't mind it at all. It had a lot more to do than Christchurch and the weather was a lot better. I hung out with Kirsten, a Dutch girl from one of my Stray buses. Then I took a free city tour, run by Stray. We stopped at the sky tower, the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. We also checked out some volcanoes and scenic outlooks. All in all, Auckland was a surprisingly good place to finish off NZ in my opinion.

My Air Pacific flight was the most eventful flight of my life. Halfway to Fiji, a warning light came on, so we had to turn around and go back to Auckland. But all the fuel made the plane too heavy to land. So we had to fly with "speed flaps" in use and the landing gear down as well. So it was quite a bumpy ride. Then of course, as soon as we landed, the warning light went out. And we had to sit there for a few hours while they fixed it. By the time I finally got to Fiji, I didn't have enough time to venture out the airport.

Somehow, I left Fiji at 10 pm on December 11, flew overnight, and landed in LA in the past, at 1 pm on the same day. Because I spent two days in December 11, my birthday has effectively been pushed back a day. So my new birthday is officially October 23 now. Trust me.

Nicole, my friend who I met in Africa, picked me up at LAX. Later that night, I met up with my friend Upperco from high school. We went bar hopping in Pasadena, which apparently is a rich area. Although it wasn't that expensive for us.

The next day, Nicole, her friend Roxy, and I drove up to San Francisco, via the acclaimed Pacific Coast Highway. Although we got sidetracked along the way making some stops so we didn't really see much of the PCH. But we're going to definitely drive it the whole way back to LA.

Despite the awful weather, San Fran is awesome! I've wanted to get here for as long as I can remember and it hasn't disappointed. It might even be my favorite American city. It's probably the seafood capital of the country, although we are staying within walking distance of Fishermans Wharf. And by the way, you can see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge from our hostel. A lot of people consider the wharf to be a tourist trap. But whatever, the seafood is plentiful and amazing.

Today we went out to Alcatraz and it was really good. It has one of the best audio tours ever too! We capped off the night eating really good Italian food (very refreshing to get American sized portions again) and then hitting up a jazz club that hosted an incredible jam session. I really love San Fran's nightlife.

Tomorrow, we're heading back down to LA and we'll probably check out Hollywood and Venice Beach and wherever else the girls decide to take me. They're really stubborn about how "great" LA supposedly is, so they're making it their resposibility to convince me. It's got a lot of catching up to do though after SF.

I'll see all you east siders late Thursday night. We'll be partying until Monday.

---