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?