Boeing 737-74U (BBJ) N887LS c/n 29233 crossed the Pacific Ocean 25 November orginating at Phuket and making tech stops at Saipan and Honolulu on its way to San Bernardino, California.
This airframe was first delivered to Air Shamrock of Van Nuys as N4AS in December 1999 and flew to NZ a number of times with its owners from the Disney Corporation who had commissioned a NZ boat building firm to construct a racing yacht they christened "PYEWACKET III". Interesting it was the first civilian variant of the Boeing Business Jet to visit Auckland arriving there from Honolulu on 12 January 2003 and departing three days later.
In June 2007 the ownership changed to Felham Enterprises/Rank Services operated on behalf of Graeme Hart and its registration became N66ZB with the aircraft arriving at Auckland from Nadi on 07 October of that year replacing a Global Express, N18WZ. Its time as a NZ resident was relatively short lived and it departed for Honolulu on 11 May 2008 and was subsequently listed for sale, it being replaced with the Felham/Rank team by a temporary Global Express XRS N57LE with this aircraft arriving at Auckland from Teterboro and Honolulu on 19 May 2008.
N66ZB was ultimately sold to the Government of Madagascar and became 5R-MRP (photo here) in January 2009 and remained with them until being sold to casino giants Las Vegas Sands Corporation as N887LS on 21 November 2012.
Below we see N66ZB, featuring the small NZ flag on the tail, departing Auckland for Nadi and Los Angeles ironically on 27 November 2007!
