<p>corranged</p>
<p>Depends on how you look at it. All of the flying between LA and NZ (12 or 13 hours depending on the direction and wind speed) is done "at night" so you aren't losing daylight vacation time.</p>
<p>If you fly to St Croix, for instance, you often fly all day to get there fairly late in the day. And there are direct flights to NZ from LA. If you travel anywhere (say to Mexico or Carib) where there are connections, you can easily spend more than 12 hours (all during daylight hours) to get to your destination. Think the "normal" Miami experience.</p>
<p>You get to Auckland at 5:10 am and can connect to Queenstown (almost the 2 most distant points in NZ) and still have a 1/2 day to look around.</p>