The end is near!

Universal Studios!
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Our flight was later that evening, all was going well until news from home made us aware of the terror threat on aeroplanes in the UK. Fiji doesn’t do news etc so this was a total surprise to us and left us pretty nervous for our flight to USA. In the traditional Fijian way there were ‘no problems’ and they weren’t aware of any major issues (you’ve gotta love them?!)

Anyway, we made it to LA mid afternoon after a long 11 hour flight with a screaming child. Our accommodation for the next few nights was Adventure Backpackers a hotel/hostel with a pool 99cent beer and cocktails, free muffins cookies and champagne sounds pretty good when you put it like that, it’s only when I mention that the hostel was under the flight path, in a rough end of town (we went to sleep to the sounds of sirens and gun shots) and ants in the bed that you start to think otherwise.

we couldn’t go to LA and not see Shrek!

Water Worlds Show...Jenn still has the golf ball!:)
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On our first full day in LA we went to Universal Studios…well, we couldn’t go to LA and not see Shrek! We had a lovely day at the studios, we mastered the art of queuing as we waited for the Back To The Future Ride and Universal Studio tour, this was really good although we would advise you sit on the left hand side of the bus if you do ever go on the tour! We had a couple of pictures and a hug with Shrek then we headed back to the hostel. The next day we made the most of the free shuttle bus and along with several others from the hostel headed for Venice Beach. We managed to pick up a waif and stray in the form of a French guy from our hostel, and lounged on the beach for several hours before wandering the shops and heading back to the hostel for our final night.

Water Worlds Show
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On our final morning we were pleasantly surprised when we looked up from our sunbeds (which we were on by 9 am :) ) and saw Becky , we met her and her partner Mike in Greymouth in NZ. We caught up during the morning before headed our separate ways, ours being the LAX airport…YAY!!

We arrived 4 hours early for a flight which we already knew was delayed for 2 hours, the queue lead out of the airport and along the footpath. Us being the penny pinching backpackers that we are, we refused to pay for a trolley ($3?!) and so ended up carrying our backpacks for the next 2 hours, until we made it to the check in desk! The lady at the desk took pity on us and let us have extra space seats for the trip back, after the 2 hour wait in quite a boring waiting area, we were frisked and searched by the army ;-) before getting on our final flight home!