Standing at the base of the 14-metre-high glowing white letters that gaze over the sprawling city of Los Angeles, our guide tells us “The Hollywood Sign is America”.

It’s custodian, Jeff Zarrinnam, has been asking visitors for 40 years what the icon represents to them, and one standout answer was “all the way to the top, baby”.

“LA is not just the entertainment industry, it’s about people aspiring to achieve their goals. The sign is an aspirational beacon, motivating them to push themselves to the limit,” Zarrinnam says.

Ordinarily, getting this close to the sign would trigger sirens and the arrival of helicopters. There’s 24/7 surveillance and a whole sheriff’s division of the LAPD dedicated to protecting it.

But, we are let through a locked gate on a private tour by “Mr Hollywood” himself – a man with a title that is only bestowed once in a generation. The next day, Miley Cyrus does the same tour.

Zarrinnam’s parents immigrated to the states in the 1950s; his German mother made hair and his Iranian father was a waiter, both chasing the American dream. Now, Zarrinnam is a hotelier and has chaired the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

I ask Mr Hollywood if that dream is still alive in LA. He acknowledges the city has a homelessness problem, but emphasises that mayor Karen Bass is “laser-focused” on solving it.

During my four-day stay in LA, my impression is that it’s thrive or dive. The cost of living is sky-high but for those that can make a living the possibilities are endless. It’s a lifestyle-obsessed, hustle hard, play hard, culture.

We visit Erewhon, a health goods supermarket, where aspiring socialites shop seemingly just to be seen, and to take a picture for the ‘gram. There’s a 470ml jar of East African sea moss soaked in alkaline water on the shelf for NZ$83.

Trying to fit in, I buy the Hayley Bieber smoothie which has 13 ingredients, including sea moss, and costs NZ$30. But, to me, it just tastes like a strawberry milkshake.

Later on the street, I see a robot shopping cart delivering groceries. It stops to give way to a pedestrian, a homeless man, who shoves it onto its side, leaving it stuck there like a beetle on its back.

The LA hustle is exemplified for me when on the Hollywood Walk of Fame I come across aspiring rappers handing out mix CDs. They’re not getting many takers.

I take one for the novelty, but seeing that, another rapper quickly comes up and offers me a signed disc made out to “J Doggy Dog”.

“We be suriving out here on donations. $20 would do,” he says to me. It’s an obvious con, but I give it to him, and he tells me ecstatically that I’ve “made the dream come back alive”.

I get a picture with them, and who knows, maybe I’ve just met the next big thing.

In LA, celebrities are everywhere, if you can spot them. It turns out that recognising famous faces on the street when they’re just living their lives and looking like a normal person can be difficult.

On a visit to the LACMA art museum, a woman nearly walks into me. Soon after, I’m told it was Eva Longoria out with her kids.

On another occasion, sipping a cortado at a café at the foot of the Hollywood Hills, I see Anna Kendrick a couple of tables away. Then, Cliff Curtis walks in.

He doesn’t seem to recognise Kendrick, but I take my opportunity to make him acquainted with me, and ask if he has any tips for Kiwis moving to the city.

“Some people are just naturally attuned to LA life, but I’m a little bit less that way inclined. I like finding little nooks in these side streets up in the canyons where I can hide away,” he says.

I ask if he managed to find somewhere to watch the recent Rugby World Cup final, and sure enough, he’s found two British pubs in LA for that exact purpose.

On a cycle tour through the old money suburbs of Hollywood, Erik Hines of Bike and Hikes tells us there are two sides of LA.

He explains that LA isn’t glitz, it’s grit and glamour. During World War II it was a munitions manufacturing hub, and after the war there was a call for blue-collar workers to migrate to LA.

Three million people moved there in 15 years, attracted by well-paid jobs and affordable housing, he says. Those deco houses bought for around $15,000 are now worth up to $120 million.

Likewise, the film industry was attracted by cheap real estate – not the luxurious California lifestyle and sunshine.

When we visit the Warner Bros studio lot it’s eerily quiet, whether that’s because of the actor’s strike or the mourning of the passing of Matthew Perry. The lot is the size of a town, like a Vatican within LA.

The fountain featured in the Friends sitcom “I’ll Be There for You” intro is preserved there along with a fibreglass couch. A bouquet of flowers was respectfully laid next to it.

Visitors can also sit in the Central Perk café set and have their photo taken at the TV group’s regular table.

Our guide tells us that since working on the tour, he’s been shocked by the mania that the sitcom has induced among visitors, along with the Stars Hollow set from The Gilmore Girls.

He’s had several entertainment industry jobs, including as a paparazzo, and being a guide is the latest thing. “You take whatever work you can get in this town,” he says multiple times.

Chris Heywood of Discover LA pitches the city’s various distinct neighbourhoods as having a place for everyone who visits.

“We’ve heard from focus groups that people come here because they can truly be themselves, and take risks,” he says.

The city is divided into districts dedicated to art, music or film, and has ethnic enclaves that have the largest diaspora of various countries including Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Iran.

If nothing else, Kiwi travellers should visit for the Californian weather, he says, which is warm in the day and cool in the evening.

“LA has 329 sunshine days a year, and at night it’s an auto air-conditioning system, you just open a window.”

Fact file:

Getting there: Delta Air Lines flies daily from Auckland to Los Angeles. The service will decrease to three times a week from April to October. See: delta.com

Carbon footprint: Flying generates carbon emissions. To reduce your impact, consider other ways of travelling, amalgamate your trips, and when you need to fly, consider offsetting emissions.

The writer flew as a guest of Delta Air Lines.