Theres no place like home.

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Thursday night we had tea and then went over to Trish and Tommys place. Kids had a ball playing with Ethan and Grace and Trish and I tried to set up their new notebooks to our computer so the kids can talk to each other on windows live when we're back in NZ. Everyone managed to stay awake to see the ball drop in Times square, New York, where we were yesterday. Dick Clarke came on as he has done for the last 36 years, Ryan Seacrest hosted the show from there as Dick had a stroke last year and is not quite what he used to be.We saw where New Zealand was the 1st place in the world to celebrate new years from the sky tower.
Friday we got up early and did the last of the packing before Ross came back from feeding the horses about 9am . Loaded up the back of the truck and covered it with tarps as it was spose to rain/snow. It never did. Getting to JFK airport from New Jersey can be a really big pain as you have to go into New York and then go around it to get to the airport, thats when you normally hit the traffic jams and get stuck. Its very hard to judge when you have to be at the airport at a certain time. We flew out at 3pm, had to check in by 1pm . It takes about 2 hours to drive there so we allowed 4 as it could be busy. Well I don't think Ross has ever seen the road so empty all the way up there. I guess everyone was still lying in bed after new years eve!!We got there about 11.30am, unloaded the truck and said our goodbyes. It was a bit of a site but we have 16 bags of luggage. We are allowed 2 bags each of 50lb(25kg) to check in.They were all on or a little bit over their weight, 4 carry on suitcases also a bit heavy but they never weigh those, and 4 hand luggage(backpacks full). The bag we bought especially for the ripstiks is oversize and overweight and she just put a heavy tag on it and sent us on our way. So we had a very long wait for our plane but that was alot better than rushing to get there. We had a good flight across to L.A. I cant remember how many times I have flown into L.A at night but it should something everyone in this world should see once in their lives. The lights just seem to go on and on and look so amazing with all the cars and interstates etc. Collected our mass of bags and caught a shuttle to our hotel which was right by the airport which was good.
Saturday we went downstairs after a very good sleep. The hotel has air beds, they are like a water bed but you can adjust how high or low a pressure you want in them to suit you. Problem was I got Josh for the night and he's worse than I am at tossing and turning all night. Kylie reckons its payback!! We booked a tour to Universal studios and they picked us up from the hotel at 8.30am. It was now 8.05am, so we ran down the road to a subway and bought and ate a very quick breakfast to be back at the hotel in time. After driving around 1/2 of L.A picking up others for the tours we finally got to Universal about 10am. To find that Josh and my ticket worked and Kylie and Toris tickets had expired as they had last years date on them!! Good one, so we were in the park and Kylie and Tori were outside. She went to guest services and explained what happened, no joy. Tried ringing the tour company , no joy. So after about an hour of mucking around and getting very pissed off, she bought 2 new tickets and came in. I just said we'll sort it out later , lets get here and enjoy ourselves. That we did, walking down the main street we came across Shrek and Donkey getting their photos taken with kids. We went down to the Simpsons ride and got our photos taken with them, before going on the ride. Kids thought that was pretty cool . Then we went and watched 'Waterworld', It was a movie years ago with kevin Costner in it , well its a show off that with jetskis and boats and heaps of pyrotechnics going off and water splashing the crowd as these guys have a small war right in front of you. Excellent, most of the cast were off movies or TV shows so it was of a real high standard. Then we jumped on the tram tour around the movie sets and sound stages. They are still building some new sets after a fire ripped thru a lot of them a couple of years ago. They are incredible to look at, so real from the front , then when you drive around the back and you can see right thru them as there is nothing to them. We saw Jaws again as he attacked our tram, he did that 30 years ago when I was there last. We drove thru the scene from 'War of the worlds' where the 747 was broken apart where it crashed into a bunch of houses. That is awesome to see. The water parted for us as we drove up to the lake as it has been doing for years. We went and watched a 4D Shrek movie, then went through one of the sets from 'Backdraft' and they actually set it off in and around you. The heat and the smoke from it, made a lot of people jump including Josh. This whole chemical factory scene just caught fire and blew up and fell apart all around us as we stood there watching it. By then it was about 5.30pm and we had to catch the bus back to our hotel. I told the bus driver about our tickets and he rang the office, so we stopped in there on the way back and they refunded us for the tickets we had to buy. Why they just didn't say that on the phone in the 1st place and we would saved ourselves a lot of stress. Anyway , it all worked out OK, we walked down the street to Denny's for tea which was a nice end to the day.
Saturday, When I went and booked for a 1/2 day city tour last night , the guy down there said for 4 of us to do the tour we could get a town car with a guide for the same price. So we did and that was definately the best thing we did.When we were stacking our bags onto the bell hops trolley he counted the bags and said there was 7 of the big ones, we said no there should be 8!!, No only 7 so we looked around the room, no bag!! Well we had it when we got off the plane in LA, so it must be on the shuttle bus we took on friday night. Luckily Dwayne the bell hop had their phone number and after a little bit of searching , they found our suitcase. Man that could have been a disaster. Needless to say Dwayne got a pretty good tip!! The lady with the towncar picked us up after we had a very flash breakfast in the hotel(what the heck its our last day!!) and took us to Hollywood first. We stopped and had a walk around the Kodak theatre were they have one of the awards ceremonies there. Walked along the avenue of stars, took photos of the ones we knew. Drove thru Beverley Hills and looked at some of the mansions there, most you can't see much other than their fancy front gate and big hedges around their property for privacy. You just get told Cher lives here and its worth 10 million dollars!!Tom Cruise is doing alterations at his place at the moment, I said maybe I should drop off one of my business cards as I'll need some work soon!! LOL. We stopped and walked down and around Rodeo drive, thats the exclusive part of the city where all the name brands are. We were laughing at one of the shops it looked like it was empty. Very nicely decorated then on these racks in the middle of the shop they had like 7 shirts on them and 3 pairs of shoes below them. They would have had about 5 of these racks and that was the whole shop!! and a salesman standing there doing nothing!! She then drove us over to Santa Monica beach, Wow was it hot walking around there. Its 80 degrees here , its normally about 65 this time of year but they are having a heatwave, lovely as we've just come from snow. We walked down on the pier and had 'our last supper', Taco Bell and Dippin dots(ice cream) of course before heading back to the hotel. The 1st shuttle that pulled up was 1/2 full and had no room for all our bags , so we managed to get on the next one. The line at Air New Zealand was huge as they are doing all this extra checking of passengers now. Once again we managed to get all our bags checked through to Palmy without having to pay a cent!! Josh has to get searched seperately everytime we go thru those security check places, they swab his pump and pat him down with one of us there to watch him. Kylie and the kids got 3 seats by the window and I got the window seat in front of them, so that was good. The 2 girls next to me looked at me funny when after an hour into the flight they came and handed me my meal as well as Toris as us ' Special needs" people get our meals 1st. Watched a couple of movies then had a good sleep until they woke us up for breakfast an hour out from Auckland. When we came out of customs who did we see standing there but Greg and Mel. Its 6am and they came out to see us as they had been up in Auckland but stayed an extra day as they knew we were flying in. What an awesome surprise!! So we sat and caught up over a McD's breakfast before heading over to domestic.You know you are back in New Zealand when I ordered my meal and the lady on the counter is standing there waiting for the guy out the back to make it. She says"Hurry up with my order" and the guy out the back calls out to me" Sorry bro" and gives me the nod!! Tourists must wonder what hit them when they start walking to there domestic gate under this tin walkway out to their plane, say Hi to the pilot on the way in the door. Finally after 7 months we flew back into good ole Palmy to our huge welcoming party. Perry, Lisa, Fae, Ralph, Dard, Nongy, Jurl and the kids were all there to meet us. They all had a good laugh at the amount of our bags. While they all headed off to our place, Jurl and I went up to her place to get her car as she had driven ours to the airport. So after 1/2 an hour of being on land again, Im driving on the wrong side of the road again!! It just fells abit different that all, you know you have been doing it for years but you just have to think a bit when you come to an intersection. Spent luchtime just catching up with everyone, went and got my phone of Janine and my computer etc as they were heading away on holiday. She was quite happy to get rid of the phone I think. I got 2 calls about jobs , so thats tomorrow I guess. Jurl came around for awhile then I went home with her to get my van. I guess life begins to get back to normal. BBQ dinner around at the Moletas was definately much appreciated to finish off a very long day. To all of you who have enjoyed your weekly installments of the Claridges on tour for the last 7 months, I say thanks for keeping in touch with us and we look forward to catching up with guys soon. I'd like to say thanks to Kylie, Josh and Tori for putting up with me. One of our biggest challenges on this trip was always going to be how we all coped with living with each other 24/7. I think wel'll remember this time as an amazing time of our lives as we managed to actually get on really well. I dont think there would be many parents that have spent so much time with their children and hopefully opened their eyes to the wonders of the world and had so much fun doing it. Someone once said" Dont be sad its over, Be glad that it ever happened!"
Bye Paul

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Photos

Kylie
Kylie getting a massage before we head back.

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Kids on the red carpet at Universal Studios.

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The Bartman!!

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The waterworld show.

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Driving into Wisteria lane off desperate housewives.

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Jaws

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The plane crash scene from war of the worlds.

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In front of the Hollywood sign.

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Tori with spiderman by the Kodak theatre.

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Claridges in front of the real hollywood sign.

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Tori enjoying her dippin dots at Santa Monica pier.

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Route 66 sign.

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Us with all our bags at Auckland airport.

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Unpacking!!