5, 4, 3, 2...1

As you know from our last blog, we spent St.Patricks day in Auckland. It seems the Auklanders celebrate it in a big way with parades, dressing up and lots of drinking. The Volvo Ocean Yacht Race was also in town, so we walked around the marina past many very pricey yachts in time to see the NZ team yacht leave for the next leg of the race. After a pint of Guinness we headed back to our campervan to make our way to our last campsite only to find some scumbag had broken in and stolen pretty much all of our belongings :( everything we'd collected along the way-even our journals worth nothing to them but everything to us! After a loooong phone call to the Police we were advised to leave the van so it could be finger printed. Finding new accommodation was not an easy task with a pop concert on in town and St. Paddy's festivities we had no chance in the city and ended up in a hotel by the airport. The next morning we had to buy a new case for the few things the robbers had left us with!
At the airport we briefly met up with Vicky, a friend from home who moved out here 3 years ago (we'd have met the night before for drinks if circumstances were better!). It was great to catch up and she did manage to redeem some of Aucklands good points!
12 hours and 7 films between us later (we don't sleep well on planes), we arrived in LA. We were a bit disorientated after departing at 2:05pm and travelling back in time to 6:20am on the same day. Being too early to check in and catch up on sleep, we headed to Santa Monica to see about replacing some of our clothes. After a real American breakfast of eggs benedict and coffee on free refill (much needed), we trawled the shops for some clothing bargains.
Up early the next morning, (NOT!) we headed over to Warner Bros studios for a tour. We learned the secrets of the trade and got to see some memorabilia from past films including the 'Tumbler' from the new Batman films and loads of Harry Potter props too. We even got sorted by THE Sorting Hat into Gryffindor House. Yay!
Afterwards we went for a walk around Hollywood to see the infamous sign on the hill and the walk of fame. It also happened to be the world premier of American Reunion, so we got within arms reach of Jim, Nadia and S*#tbrick!!! But the real highlight was seeing Jedward arrive at the premier!?! We celebrated with dinner and drinks at Hooters (Matt's suggestion).
We spent our last day taking it easy with a few beach walks and a coastal drive. First we went to Santa Monica beach and had a walk along the pier and took a look a Muscle Beach where all the Arnie wannabes pump iron. One supposed Beef Cake had sprained his poor lickle army warrmy and called the paramedics. How we chuckled! We then took a drive up the coast to Malibu for another stretch of the legs along the beach before heading to LAX to catch our flight home :-(