and "Starlifters" of the USAF. We were beginning to think we'd arrived even though there was still a long way yet to go. Little busses took us to Immigration, a vast hall with a row of counters running down the middle. On the side we were delivered it was neutral territory, once we got past the counters we'd be in the United States of America. There must have been thirty counters and when we arrived the non-US part of the hall was full of people, all standing in long queues waiting to get let into the country. I've never seen anything like it, we were told that six large aeroplanes had all arrived at once and the facilities were strained. There were more aeroplanes coming in but their passengers would have to wait before they even got as far as we had. Very slowly the queues moved forward and many people were milling around trying to figure out which queue was the quickest one. The people in charge of the tourist group were trying to keep their customers together and there were seemingly thousands of asians swarming around - the whole scene was something out of an insane stf story. A long time later we were getting towards the end of the queue and the hall was emptying out slowly. A while later it was our turn to go through as they inspected passports, checked our names in their big book asked a series of dumb questions and stamped every bit of paper in sight, Then we were through, in the USA, We weren't very interested, we just wanted to go off somewhere and collapse for a while, Somebody told us to go up the escalator and wait for a bus, We waited, the bus came and drove us back to our terminal where we went through a security check and flopped into chairs in the waiting area. We waited, a clock somewhere told us that it was after 11 in the morning. A voice over the public address system said that we were all waiting for the last few of our passengers to come through Immigration. Time dragged on. Finally the door through to the aeroplane was opened and we were allowed to get back to our seats where we waited some more. The aeroplane was half empty for the last leg of the flight and the cabin crew asked us if we'd like to move because if we did they'd appreciate having the back row, probably so they could watch the film that was going to be shown. Finally we had everybody on board and we could leave, We taxied out and took off once again, the islands disappeared behind us and as we got higher all there was to see was the ocean and whispy clouds. We both dozed off. The film for the afternoon was "The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn" and we couldn't have cared less. Half asleep I recall gazing blankly at figures moving on the screen several times but I was far more interested in being oblivious to the world than anything else. Some time later we were fed yet another of the Air New Zealand excellent meals though by this time we were getting hungry anyhow since it was way into the afternoon according to whatever time zone we were in. We didn't really know anything about what time it might be or what time it should have been, all we knew was that we were tired, that we'd be landing at Los Angeles International Airport in another hour or so and it would be 7 pm or some such when we arrived. To summarize it all, we were tired and we were excited. Gradually we came back to life as land appeared way off in the distance. Then we were flying over land again, the American mainland and the most remarkable thing about it was that it was just like ordinary landscape I had known that it would be normal but, well... one can always hope for something more spectacular. There was the occasional house and some roads, We flew over a freeway that disappeared off into the distance, "The houses became denser and I supposed we were then actually over Los Angeles. It was dusk as we came down over the airport perimeter, flared and touched down. The International Hotel whizzed past and we gradually slowed down and then taxied to the terminal - the journey across the Pacific had finished and our adventure was about to begin in earnest. 12