Well I guess this my final blog for the trip, kind of sad really but…… I just met Cuba Gooding Jnr in the Koru club lounge!! Holy Shit! What a great way to end what has been a mind blowing journey. I’m still shaking, like for real, it’s the most nervous I have ever been when talking to a celebrity of some kind, like different level nervous. I loved ‘Boyz in the Hood’ when I was in high school, I watched it heaps of times. I summoned the courage and debated with myself doing anything at all, since it is a gold lounge and stuff, probably shouldn’t disturb him, but then thought ‘stuff it’ you will never get this chance again. He was sitting with a woman at a reserved table in the corner and as I strolled over he looked up nervously. I put both hands up in a defensive motion, trying to express ‘I’m not crazy and I will make this quick’. ‘I’m sorry to disturb you Sir’ I said “But I have been a huge fan ever since you did Boyz in The Hood, and I just wanted to come and say I really enjoy your work” He was very gracious and asked what my name was. I told him my name was Dan, and he shook my hand and said “Nice to meet you Dan – thank you very much”. I said cheers and walked away. I had my phone, but couldn’t even bring myself to ask to take a photo, it just seemed to intrusive, and as I walked away I was literally shaking – I’m not really sure why, guess it was just such a buzz for me. Maybe this cold refreshing L & P has gone straight to my head ha ha. So yeah, I’m in the Koru Lounge at LAX. I have been through customs, after getting a full torso pat down, due to my Greenstone showing up on their naked scanner scenario things. It’s wonderful here, there is L & P, and real NZ cheese, and I’m really enjoying myself. I have 4 more hours till take off so the buzz may wear off after a while, but I might have a couple of NZ beers or bubbly in a couple of hours – so I am sure I will be able to get through. This morning I got up and packed and fluffed about the hotel room until my midday check out, then I went and had some lunch at a crappy little tourist restaurant with a gift shop in the front entrance – I should have known that was a bad sign from the get go. After lunch I went and sat by the pool for a while, before getting the shuttle out to LAX. It’s 5pm local time now and my flight leaves at 9.30pm with boarding at 8.45 I think, so I have a few hours to kill.
So a here are a few of my favourite things;
Raindrops on Roses and whiskeys on Kittens – (Insert scratched record sound effect) – Just Joking;
Favourite City: New York, By far this was my favourite place, such a cool city and easy to negotiate, will definitely return at some stage.
Favourite Amusement Ride: I couldn’t pick just one for this category, so top three in no particular order; a) New York, New York Rollercoaster in Vegas (No rides at the other theme packs twist and turn like that one – it’s a beauty) b) The Tower of Terror at California Disney (Just didn’t know what I was in for so it gave me a good rush and hysterical laughter.) c) The King Kong 3D experience at Universal (I have never seen anything like it)
Best Accomodation: Stay Bridge Suites in New York, Free breakfast, a couple of nights of free snacks and drinks, great room with a view. Overall it was a nice spot to stay.
Worst Accomodation: 40 Berkley in Boston, this was the pits, no air-con, no TV, plastic mattress – pretty wack.
Best Flight: Boston to Vegas, the company I had from Chicago to Las Vegas leg of the journey was excellent. Such a funny couple.
Best Experience: Being one of the Best Men at Steve and Cyan’s wedding. It was great to be in the USA with such a fantastic group of mates for such a special occasion. I will never forget it as long as I live.
Best Broadway Show: Has to be the ‘Book of Mormon’, all the shows were good in their own way, but the Book of Mormon was next level, I had tears of laughter, I have the T-Shirt and the Soundtrack, which became the soundtrack for my travels for a good part of the journey.
Jammiest piece of Luck: Well…. Redbull hospitality was good at the Boston diving, meeting Cuba Gooding Jnr was pretty awesome, but this is a no-brainer, has to be winning $700 in Vegas and taking a helicopter to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
That’s all the categories I can think of at the moment. Holy Shit!!! Jason Bateman is in the Koru Club lounge now, this is too awesome!! One eye is concentrating on writing the other eye is checking everyone who walks past. J
Time for some shout outs;
First of all to Rob and Joan for all their help with organising and helping to finance parts of my trip – I totally appreciate it, I am very thankful, and love you guys very much. You are LEGENDS!!
To all the NZ crew that came over for the wedding, was so awesome being able to hang out with such fantastic people while on Holiday. I think it’s pretty rare to have that many people all in one place so far from home so it should be definitely acknowledged.
Special shout out’s and mad love to Rowan, Jodi and Jussie, It was great travelling around with you three and I missed you a lot when we all parted ways.
Congratulations to Steve and Cyan, it was an honour to be a part of your special day. It was the reason we all travelled so far – and it has been a life changing experience for me. I love you both very, very much, and I will always be here for you. It was an absolute pleasure to meet Cyan’s family and spend time at her home. I can’t thank you both enough.
Finally, thanks to everyone for reading my stories over the last month. It started off as a fun thing to do to keep a record of my travels so I remember everything in the future, but it has been such a buzz reading everyone’s comments and hearing that people have been travelling along with me in spirit. I think that is why I had such a safe, special and incredibly lucky journey. I love you all very much, and I am looking forward to seeing you all soon.
For interests sake, here are the stats indicating how many people have logged in to read my blog and where they are logging on from, pretty buzzy. (Not including this last one obviously). I am going to get all my entries made up into a book when I get home as I found a company online that can do it.
New Zealand 1,193
United States 256
United Kingdom 171
Canada 69
Chile 50
Australia 48
Germany 22
Italy 12
France 11
Malaysia 5
Peace Out Ya’ll – See ya back in the Mother Land – Aotearoa, here I come!!
Cheers Everyone!!
1 comment:
Massive "chur bro" to you Mizz, have enjoyed following and reading your adventures, its nice to know theres a good mate also doing his own travelling on another continent, and although we have seperate I sort of feel "side by side" if you catch my drift. Anyway very much looking foward to catching up over a cold one and sharing some storys in a month or so. Oh and in case youre wondering about the guidos and frogs reading your stuff, it was proberbly me haha!
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