THE VULTURES

Hmmmmm we seem to be jumping back in time here. I will do this a little as there is still so very much to tell about Belize, so enjoy or get over it.

We were sitting on our porch one afternoon and I noticed that there were all these vultures sitting up in our palm tree. About 8 of them.

I watched them for ages flying down and back up and soon began to wonder what they were flying down for. Thinking, hmmmm vultures they are scavengers, what are they up to.

On closer inspection I found that there was a huge pigs head in the middle of the road and the vultures were having a field day with it.

Some would stand on guard while the others all had a good ol peck at it. They would try to fly off with it but that was never going to happen it was that big.

I wentback to my seat and thought to myself, "there goes a pigs head"!

My how funny the things we get used too!

DISNEYLAND!

We just had to do it!

We went to Disneyland a few days before we left La. We bought ourselves a two park pass that got us into Disneyland and into California Adventures.

I had my photo taken with Minnie she was delightful, didnt say much but anyway....

There were only so many hours in the day so we crammed in as many rides as we could.

In Disney there are a lot of rides based around movie themes, ie Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean etc. These were great and really made you feel as though you were on an adventure with Indy.

Even some of the kids rides were cool. Dave went on the Tea cups that spin around and around, didnt even throw up!

We laughed and screamed our way around the parks, getting the best of both worlds.

If you ever go to California Adventure park you have to go on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, it is fantastic! You are in an elevator that goes wild, thrusting you into the air and then dropping you all over the place. Oh did I mention in the dark! Very cool!

There is also the ride that holds you at the bottom and after a painstaking pause it slingshots you into the air 180 feet in four seconds. This ride even has a barf shield! he he, didnt need that, phew!

All the rides were great and we would love to have spent many many days there being children all over again!

Would love to have gone to Six Flags Magic Mountain but couldnt get out to it, so we will have to save that for next time.

BACK IN THE LAND OF THE LONG WHITE CLOUD!

Well folks we are back in good ol NZ. We are freezing our butts off but yet are glad to see family and friends.

Before leaving LA we spent some time with old friends and are having a great time catching up.

We went up to a place called Fresno, this is about an hour or so drive from the giant sequoia forest. We saw one tree that is about 2000 yrs old! This thing was massive! The tree stands over 267 feet tall. Thats very big you might say, but no. There is another one, the biggest tree in the world.

The General Sherman Tree stands approx 275 feet tall with a trunk that weighs approx 1385 tonnes and has a ground circumference of approx 103 feet! Unfortunately we were not able to get up to this tree as the road was closed by snow. But we did see the General Grant which is the one that stands 267 feet.

Having seen the Tane Mahuta kauri tree we thought we had seen a big tree but this really blew our minds. Actually the tree had a strange resemblence to the tree we see drawn, depicting Daniels dream.........

There was another giant we wanted to go and see, this is called the tunnel tree. This tree is so wide at its base there is a road that goes through it! SERIOUSLY!!........ road closed there too.....

The forest was just magnifient, there was snow on the ground that glistened with the setting sun and the towering trees looking down on us. We really did feel small. And to think that the General Sherman tree is so old that it was around when Jesus was on earth!

Many photos were taken and many "wows" were uttered. We hope to one day go and see the other trees we were so close to but yet so far from.

(the picture at the top was one of the smaller sequoia at the entrance to the park, notice to the left of the tree, thats Dave!)

DEPORTATION!!!!!!!!!1

So here we are back in LA. We will stay wit our friends Pattiann and Mike until the 10th Jan when we fly back to NZ.

The weather is cool here at the moment, well it is for us anyway. It has been wonderful catching up with old friends and sharing experiences with them.

On arriving into Miami (en route to LA) we were stopped in customs. There we were taken into this "back room" with a bunch of other people. We were told that there was a problem with or visa waiver thingy. We waited for about an hour before someone finally spoke to us.

We were taken into separate room where we were each asked a whole lot of questions. I guess they were trying to see if we had the same story as each other. This questioning went on for about 3 hours!

Eventually we were told that one of our forms had that we were seeking employment in the US but the other said we were not. They thought that we were going to try and "overstay" and remain in the US illegally! Can you believe it?

Finally the man comes out and says to us. "We really only have two choices, either we believe you or we deport you to NZ on the next plane! Right now it doesnt look very good for you". He said that he and his supervisor would have to review everything we had said and decide what they would do with us.

Out he comes again, now 4 hours have passed. He tells us that they have decided to believe us and we can stay until the 10th as per our tickets.

Oh my goodness, what a sign of relief we gave!

The funny thing (although not funny at the time) was that we looked as though we would try to stay. We had sold our house, we had no real job to go back to, we had sold all our possessions etc, hmmm that really didnt look good ha!

So anyway, we ended up missing all the flights out of Miami that night and had to stay over until the next plane left in the morning.

One good thing that came out of this was that American Airlines ended up paying for us to stay in a hotel as the plane had landed a little late. Also in light of what had happened they contributed towards breakfast and dinner. They put us in the HILTON baby! Man that was awesome!!!!!!!!!

Now if we want to travel to the US again, Dave has to get a proper visa as he can no longer travel under the visa waiver programme. All in all a much better outcome than being deported!! Oh and the HILTON did I mention that?

THE FEDERAL DISTRICT

During our stay in Mecixo City we went walking as we were very close to the Federal District. Not sure if you guys have heard of this part of Mexico but I'll try to explain it for ya.

You may have seen pictues of an area where there is a huge square or plaza as they call it, it is surrounded by these old old buildings. Some of them are old churches, others are old government buildings.

The whole area is lit up with lights at night and is just beautiful. When we were there unfortunately there was a huge Christmas thing going on in the centre of the plaza so you couldnt stand in the middle and get a good view all around of the buildings. There were huge christmas lights on all the buildings which were quite pretty too really.

We wandered the streets most nights eating dinner among the throngs of Mexican people. What an amazing experience! The sights, the smells, the experience, Woooooow.

Our Mexico experience was amazing, I will fill you in more as I go along.

OTHER CONVENTION DAYS

So heres a little more info on the International Convention.

Due to my health we stayed in a hotel with delegates from El Salvador, Guatemala and Cancun. They were all crazy just like us so we got on extremely well. Many a new friend was made there.

On each of the other days at the convention there were great crowds of people lined up creating a corridor for us to walk through. It would start out on the street and then weave its way into the stadium.

It would often take an hour to get to our seats as so many people wanted us to stop and get a photo with the people from New Zealand, it was so funny. The same would happen when we would leave each day.

There were delegates from, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Spain, USA, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba I think that there was one more but I dont seem to be able to remember them, sorry delegates........ So yes it was a melting pot of mainly Spanish speaking cultures.

The Mexican people were so hospitable and welcoming, leaving was a real challenge and many tears were shed by all, even the brothers.

We now have friends in a few more countries around the world which one day we would love to go and see. They all felt like family by the time we left.

If you ever get a chance to get to an International, THEN GO!!!!!!