Our Arrival in the land of Kiwi

Written by Kim on October 6, 2010 in Russell, New Zealand

Again, you’ll have to forgive our long-winded postings.  They may seem drawn out and detailed, but they are doubling as our personal journal, and the details are important to us.  So, some of you may prefer to simply scan and check out the picture highlights of our experiences.  Don’t worry, we won’t know, or be offended ;)

Back to blogging...

We arrived in Auckland on the morning of October 2 after an exciting morning in Samoa.  The taxi we had organized to pick us up at our hotel at 4am to take us to the airport never showed, and waiting for another to arrive put us behind schedule.  On top of that, when we arrived to the counter at the airport, we did not have a print out of our flight out of New Zealand, and therefore could not complete our check in.  With only 45 minutes until our flight took off, Aus had to run to the nearby internet cafe to print out proof of a flight leaving New Zealand.  You think that having travelled as much as we have, we would have had this sorted.  But, we booked this flight last minute in Samoa after learning we had to have an outgoing flight in order to get into New Zealand.  We had so much difficulty using the internet to book the flight that we couldn’t bear the thought of trying to find somewhere that might be able to print it.  Instead, Austin saved the itinerary/e-tickets digitally on the little laptop we’re carrying with us.  We figured that in this digital age, bringing up our itinerary/e-tickets on our computer would suffice.  Not so much.  With only 20 minutes until the departure of our Air New Zealand flight bound for Auckland, we were handed our boarding passes and ran over to the bank counter to pay our departure taxes, and then rushed through security to arrive at our gate with literally only minutes to spare.  As it turns out, luck was on our side that morning! PHEW!

Though we were sad to leave Samoa, we were excited for what lay ahead in New Zealand.  Our first impression was interesting.  I had always thought that Canada and the U.S. had very strict entry regulations, but came to find out that the Kiwi’s are even more rigid.  Because New Zealanders rely so heavily on their farming, they are strict about letting ANY food in, even if it’s packaged.   So, our container of Blue Diamond almonds we’d be keeping handy as our snack for travel days had to be tossed in the rubbage bin, or we risked a hefty $250 fine.   Also, because Austin and I had already put our hiking shoes to use in other countries, we had to declare them as a potential 'biosecurty' threat and stand in a relatively long line at immigration to have our shoes wiped so that they could be sure we weren’t bringing in any foreign and harmful bacteria that we may have picked up along our way.  In the end it was pretty impressive what they go through to ensure protection.  We were thrilled when we were finally through customs and look forward to what lay ahead.

Our excitement for New Zealand began because everyone we had talked to who had ever been here had raved about how beautiful it is and about how many unique adventures would be at our disposal.  We were also excited because we were meeting up with a fellow Canadian and Midland’er – Christina Tubman (NE: Hanmore), and her family.  When we arrived in Auckland we had only been on the road two weeks, but having a home base with Tina, her husband Kelvin, and her two kiddies, Cooper and Madi, was exactly what we needed!  They were VERY accommodating, letting us take over the living room with a big Queen size mattress and our huge backpacks.  The Tubmans also very generously allowed us to do what must have seemed like endless amounts of laundry.  I can’t imagine how we smelled when we arrived on their doorstep, as neither of us had had any clean clothes in days and had been sweating uncontrollably all day every day the entire time we were in the south pacific islands, but I know we smelt fantastic when we left as we both also took advantage of access to hot showers.  We were also very well rested when we left the Tubman residence.  The mattress Tina and Kelvin provided us was by far the most comfortable sleeping arrangements we’ve had thus far. 

Midland'ers re-unite!  Me, Cooper, Tina, Madi & Aus...

Adorable Madi (4) and Cooper (5)...

Our first night in Auckland with Tina and Kelvin was really good fun. Before our night out we went for a fantastic meal at a local Thai restaurant.   Great timing meant that we arrived on the evening that Kelvin and Tina’s favourite Kiwi band, Opshop, with another Kiwi band, The Early Birds, were playing at a local pub.  It was a really good show.  We recommend checking out both bands’ albums.  Our second day in Auckland was very low key but was spent doing some much needed catching up.  We did tons of laundry and spent time on the internet getting all caught up with our blogging. We also took a walk around Tina and Kelvin’s suburb of Torbay and into Brown’s Bay where Tina works.  Our third day was probably our most thrilling day in Auckland.  Austin and I ventured into the city centre to do some exploring.  After checking out Queen St. we ventured into the Sky Tower, which for those of you who don’t know is comparable to Seattle’s Space Needle, or Toronto’s CN Tower.  Standing approximately 230m high at its highest point, Austin and I decided it would be a fabulous idea to venture up to see what views we could get.  For those of you who know us well, simply climbing the elevator to look out through a window or glass floor wasn’t exactly exciting enough for us.  Instead, we signed up for the Sky Tower’s, ‘Sky Walk’, which involved us suiting up, gearing up, and heading out onto a metre-wide, grated, platform that lined the entire circumference of the Sky Tower at the 192m mark.  Attached with two cords –one on the front, and one on the back – we were able to do some insane things like lean forward on our tippy-toes on the edge of the platform looking straight down at the city that lay WAY below.  Hey, why not?!  I have to admit, if you see the video of the experience, you’ll know I definitely had a healthy amount of fear.  When we first got out onto the platform, I really wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to talk my brain into making my feet move.  I found it even more difficult when I had to watch Austin hanging out over the edge.  Not something you want to see only two months into your marriage!  Haha.

Our first look at the Sky Tower up close...

Living on the edge and checking out the observation deck and the great views of the city...

Leaning out over the large windows may be scary enough for some...

The look down through the class floor gives you a good idea of just how high you are... Can you see how small the cars look?

Another great view out over the city....

From the highest observation deck you can see some crazies gathered on the grated platform...

Well, we decided we wanted to be that crazy!  Here we are 192m high on a grated, one meter wide platform...

And here's a picture of Aus truly living on the edge...

Our afternoon in Auckland was also fantastic because both Austin and I had the chance to call our parents and talk to them for the first time since we left Canada.  Tina and Kelvin kindly leant us a mobile phone to use.  We found a great plan that costs us only $2 to call Canada and talk for up to an hour.  Very exciting!  We also ate a fab lunch on a patio at a pub called appropriately 'The Patio', overlooking Queen St. While in town took the time to book our campervan that is to be our home for the next few weeks while we explore the rest of New Zealand.  Around 6pm we then met up with Kelvin and headed home to cook a Mexican meal for our hosts.

Our journey outside of Auckland started yesterday.  We picked up our Spaceship, which is the name of the campervan company we went with.  Our specific vehicle is nicknamed Dexter, and we’ve began to refer to him as such.   He's a bit old, a '94 model and over 335,000 kilometres, but it does the job.  Once Dexter was in our possession, we said our goodbyes to the Tubman’s and to the comfort of their home, where we felt so welcomed and so comfortable.  We hit the road around 3:30pm and headed to the historic coastal town of Russell, in the Bay of Islands, which is part of the northernmost region in NZ, Northland.

In attempt to be prepared, Austin and I brought our GPS along with us to help navigate during our road trip here in NZ, and the driving we will do in Australia.  Austin was able to find some maps at good price within a few hours of hopping on NZ's equivalent to Ebay, called TradeMe.  Austin successfully uploaded the maps we needed and we put it to use for the first time yesterday.  It didn’t exactly have a problem-free start.  We ended up getting off the highway much sooner than necessary.  As we are travelling in out-of the-way areas, the road we ended up on was both very windy, and very mountainous and also very far from any other connecting roads.  So, by the time we’d realized we were taking the long way, we were too far gone to turn back.  I’d say that it’s a good thing I’ve had experience driving on the left-hand side, and was therefore given  the job of driving our first leg, because otherwise I would have been sick as a dog as passenger on such a windy, up and down drive.  The other downfall to having taken the long way was that we had planned to be to Russell for dinner and before dark.  The kilometres ticked by slowly and dark began to settle in.  This was worrisome as these mountain roads not only had no lighting, but had no side rails and VERY steep drop offs.  However, despite our growing anxieties about the danger and wanting to reach our destination, we managed to enjoy the beauty this drive provided.  Here are some pictures from the scenic drive...

The wildlife...

We pulled into Russell around 8:30pm, two hours after our ETA.  We found a nice campground and parked Dexter, our Spaceship for the night.  We’re not sure if it was through our error, or if there are a few quirks with the new maps we’ve uploaded onto the GPS, but we’ve acquired some standard road maps to use for our next leg of the journey while we try to determine if the GPS is going to work as hoped.

This morning we booked a sailing tour with Great Sights so that we could get a better look at the Bay of Islands.  We headed out onto the water around 9:30am.  Almost immediately we were surrounded by a pod of Bottle-Nosed Dolphins.  Unfortunately, the camera we had at hand had dead batteries, and we were unable to get pictures of our visitors.  We continued on our way north and were given many interesting historical facts about the area as we went.  Here are some pictures from today’s events:

"Hole in the Rock" in the Bay of Islands.  On calm days the boat goes through this hole... impressive!

On one of our stops, Austin and I took a walk to learn more about Maori history in the area...

 A view from the highest point in our walk on Urupukapuka Island... our boat in the harbour...

John, whose Maori name I could never pronounce or write because it's 105 letters long, gave us some interesting historic facts about his people.  He grew up in the village just over his left shoulder.  We found it interesting to find out that John is a Christian, even though he and his people also feel that Christian missionaries were responsible for the destruction of the traditional Maori way of life.  John reconciles that faith in God is what helped the Maori peacefully endure all that they did.  Interesting to ponder anyway.

We will be spending two more nights in Russell before heading south again.  We’re still not sure where we’ll end up for Thanksgiving.  We hope everyone at home is enjoying planning and preparing for their Thanksgiving gatherings.  I imagine the air is now crisp, the leaves have fallen, and that the feeling of Fall is very much in the air.  We’ll be thinking of everyone this coming weekend and wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

Until next time!

Love and hugs,

The Knotty Travellers

Gimme Some More Samoa!

Day 15 – Written by Aus in Apia, Samoa– Thursday, September 30^th, 2010

It is our last night in Samoa tonight, and as you may guess we are sad to be leaving.  We are most definitely excited about our next stop in Auckland, New Zealand, but are going to miss Samoa.  Kim and I have been just so impressed with the people and the natural beauty of the place.  As I mentioned in my first post, it seems so untouched, and unspoiled.  People seem to have simple lives, and they like it that way, we do not see a lot of consumerism or even a desire to live that way if it were within their means.  People are for the most part content to live modestly and communally off the land.  That may be a bit of an oversimplification, but I think it is true here more than any other place I can remember visiting.  

We had a great introduction to Samoan culture at our first stop in Lalomanu.  After our last blog entry there, we had one more morning to explore the place before taking off for Apia en route to Savaii.  We were fortunate to have met some nice people from New Zealand who were regulars at the place, and they told us about a hike to a volcanic crater that could be arranged by Litia, our host at the beachfront fales we were staying at.   So we spoke with Litia and arranged our tour for the morning of our departure.  After breakfast we were met by Joe, our guide, and his brother who drove the truck up the mountain to where we started the hike.  In fact, after the drive, it could hardly be called a hike, as it was only about a 20 minute trek to the side of the crater.  But we did get to walk back down the mountain road...so at least we got a bit of exercise. Anyhow, the ‘hike’ was still impressive.  We walked through some very lush vegetation and across some of Lydia’s family’s land to get to the crater.  We couldn’t get a straight answer on how old the crater was, but we did get a cute folklore story about how it was formed.  Joe said that many years ago, the village was at odds about who between males and females was the head of the family and who worked harder to support the family.  To settle it, they had a one-day competition between all the men and all the women in the village as to who could dig the deepest hole.   At the end of the day, there was the crater we were looking at, and there was a pretty pathetic hole in the ground a few hundred meters over.  The women took the prize of the hardest workers and got the credit for digging this massive crater.  However it was formed, it was the lushest vegetation in the village, and it was full of giant bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the trees.  Kim did not like the bats, but they were not bad---more like birds really.  They feed off all the fruit, and appropriately were called fruit bats.  Joe had some other interesting stories about the crater and Samoan life that we found interesting.  He told us of a time when he was a teen and a really bad cyclone hit the village, and there was a food shortage.  Due to the fact that the crater was so lush and full of life, and I suppose it is naturally protected by its shape, they were able to sustain themselves by finding ways to get deeper and deeper into the crater to find food.  The crater was steep, I would guess about 60 or 70 degrees, so getting down in, and more importantly--out, sounded quite impressive.  Even more so when he said that they had done it by manufacturing ropes out of coconut trees.  He had a lot of stories actually about how the villagers use the coconut trees. 

Kim in the truck on the way to starting the hike...

 
You can just make out the bats in the distance inside the crater.......

The crater... hard to see the size and incline... but nevertheless....

 Kim and Joe overlooking the crater, trying not to get to close to the edge....

A cool fiddlehead I believe they are called... they are big and grow from the tops of trees...

I did not realize that coconuts were giant seeds for the coconut tree, and when they fall, they eventually sprout roots and beginning growing into a tree.  The young trees contain the coconuts that most would picture-the hard brown shell and white inner rim.  Joe and his cousin ripped a few of the young trees from the ground and cut them open with his machete.  Inside those coconuts is something like coconut favoured cotton candy--- a very yummy soft spongy ball that we all ate, very good.  Also inside is an oily gel-presumably used for many things, but for Joe he remembers using it as hair gel while in school.  Outside is hard shell that is used to make bowls, jewellery and other things.  We were also treated to coconuts not yet fallen from the tree, which contain a delicious milk that Samoans will use when they need a drink.  Quite impressive how much Samoans use the coconut tree, and how proficient they are at finding and retrieving them.  Joe’s cousin who  accompanied us was tasked with climbing a coconut tree to harvest some branches and coconuts.  He climbed himself and a machete up a 50 foot tree with remarkable ease, and then proceeded to make his way to standing on top of it to get the last of the coconuts.  We were all treated to some delicious coconut milk for the walk down the hill.  During the walk down we learned more about life in the village, and I had the opportunity to plant a Taro plant, which is kind of like a very bland potato, but a Samoan staple.  

Joe showing us the young coconut and removing the coco cotton candy...

Joe's cousin climbing the tree to get us some coconuts!

A look at just how high he was... can you see his orange t-shirt?

 Removing a cocount from its shell for milk....

Walking back down the mountain...... 

 Trying my hand at Samoan life, planting the Taro plant.....

After our hike we had another swim in the crystal clear water and caught some sun before having to head out to Apia where we spent the night before leaving for our adventures on the other main island of Samoa, Savaii.  Apia is the capital city, and it was nice, definitely not very urban.  The entire of population of Samoa is only about 160,000, and I’m not sure how big Apia was, but it not seem all that big.   The tallest building we saw was only 4 storeys high, and I think there was only a handful of multi-storey buildings.  The construction of most homes and businesses in extremely simple... mostly open concept and in many cases without any real walls.  That doesn’t really change in the city.  The only sign of ‘westernizing’ that we saw was a McDonald’s restaurant.  We spent one night on the town and were able to walk pretty much the whole place, but the city is definitely not the highlight of a trip to Samoa— it is instead the great weather and the adventures in more remote parts of the island, which we got on our trip to Savaii.  

Oh, before I go into Savaii, I suppose I should mention quickly our blog posting fiasco at Apia.  We had planned to post all of our blogs there as the place were staying at, the Samoan Outrigger hotel.  It had advertised that they had high speed internet and WiFi in the rooms.  Well, that turned out to be a wee bit of a stretch of the truth.  It turns out Samoa is a little bit behind in terms of their progress with the internet.  So we will be posting and editing all of our latest posts once we hit Auckland, where we will have a decent internet connection.  So, please excuse any scrambled posts if you happened to view them while they were incomplete due to us giving up completing the posts in frustration. 

Ok, on to Savaii.

Savaii is the northwestern island of independent Samoa, and roughly equal the size of Upolu, where we flew into.  So, we needed to take a ferry.  The ferry terminal is about an hour west of Apia, and was a reasonable taxi fare of only 70 Samoan Tala, which is about 30 Canadian dollars.  The ferry itself was even cheaper at only 12 Tala each, and took about 1.5 hours.  Samoa was quite affordable if you stayed away from the most expensive accommodations etc.  We unfortunately only had one night in Savaii, as we needed to be back in Apia for our 6:40AM flight to Auckland tomorrow.  To make the most of our time in Savaii we rented a car and drove the island at our own pace.  It worked out really well.  There is really only one main road on each island, a coastal ‘highway’ that circles the island connecting all the villages.  There are no villages inland.  So we drove the coast starting westward and circling back east at the top of the island.  On our first day we saw some more incredible beaches and some cool stuff including the Alafaga Blowholes, which are big holes in the volcanic rock along a beach that blow big streams of water out when the waves hit the rockwall.  It was neat, certainly more impressive in person as you could hear the sound and get the full effect, but we did get some photos.

The blowholes blowing....

Yours truly enjoying the rush...

The western edge of Savaii is the closest you can get in the world to this side of the international date line, so only kilometres away it was another day.  We also did a canopy walkway tour over the Faleuloupo Rainforest preserve.  It was cool, but it was a bit of a tourist trap (Samoan style of course).  There were no other tourists there, but it was a bit overpriced for what it was relative to other things we did.  However, I’m sure it would cost more in Canada or many other countries, and we didn’t mind supporting the local economy.  

The canopy walkway....

Very steep coming up....

We ended our night in the village of Manase, which is the most touristy place on the island, where there are 4 or 5 different accommodations ranging in budget and style.  Still no holiday inn or megaresorts, but we did find a place offering air conditioned suites for 550 Tala per night.  We chose the low-budget option, the open air beach fales at Regina’s.  These cost only 70 Tala per person (about 30$ Canadian) and included 3 meals a day.  They are modesty indeed, but they did the job.   They are very open concept and had a combo tin/thatch roof, with thatch siding that was able to be raised to allow the air in.  It was a bit buggy but we coated ourselves in Off bug spray and were fine. 

 Our digs....

Regina's beach fales....

This morning we woke and hit the road pretty much immediately after getting breakfast, as we wanted to make sure we left plenty of time to make the last ferry of the day at 2PM, so we would not be stranded on the island and miss our flight tomorrow.   We still got to see some cool stuff on the drive though, including the highlight of our trip to Savaii, swimming with Sea Turtles.  The turtles were in captivity at a place in the village of Seleaolupo, but there were plenty of them and some were quite big, so it was pretty cool to get in and swim with them.  Here are some photos....

The driving was really fun.  We had a small little Toyota Vitz that did the job, but didn’t have a whole lot of pickup.  Kim did the driving as she is accustomed to driving on the other side of the road due to ther time in the UK.  It was nice to be able to see the place at our own pace and stop where we anted to.  We really enjoyed Samoa and hope to be back someday.  Right now though we’re headed to bed to grab some sleep before waking at 3:45 AM to catch our flight to Auckland.  That flight will be the last time we cross the date line on the trip, I think.  We go forward 1 day and back one hour, so we pretty much skip October 1^st and go right to the 2^nd.  Weird!  We will have to send back the lotto #’s to our Canadian friends once we are in the future!

All the best to everyone reading.  I will leave you with a few more photos from our adventures in Savaii.  

Some lava fields .....

There were some great beaches that we had to check out....

Our little Vitz on the coastal highway....

One of the many pigs we saw on the drive roaming around freely...

Some very animated little boys we ran into on the drive...

Why did the chicken cross the road?

The colorful buses of Samoa....

That’s all for now.....next stop, New Zealand!

Cheers,

The Knotty Travellers

Gimme Samoa

Day 12 – Written by Aus at Lalomanu, Samoa

Samoa is awesome!  Not only is this place really amazing, but it is nearly untouched by modern tourism.  The only accommodations we`ve seen have been beachfront fales, the majority of which have no doors or windows but instead only a mattress on the floor and a tarp, or woven shutters in case of rain.  There are no megaresorts in Samoa, and we are apparently on the best beach in Samoa, which I believe as it is gorgeous, and the water is the clearest I have ever seen.  The experience we have had since our arrival has been very impressive.  That is largely due to our good timing.  By luck we arrived on the day of the grand re-opening of the Litia Sini resort.  We are here after one year of rebuilding following last year`s Tsunami that wiped out the resorts previous infrastructure.   One year ago Sept. 29 this area was hit hard by a Tsunami, resulting in many deaths, casualties and total destruction of many homes and buildings.  This village (Lalomanu), was the hardest hit in Samoa.  The village lost 64 people, and that is a very large number relative to the population (approx 250).  So, there is an incredible amount of emotion involved for the people here who have work hard to rebuild this resort.  Despite the fact that it is a sad occasion to remember, it is also a joyous being able to celebrate the completion and reopening of this resort.  We are just lucky to have the timing that we do, as we have been treated very well.  

Our journey to Samoa was a short flight, but involved lots of waiting.  It was in the middle of the night, so it knocked us out of our natural rhythm.  I should mention that coming to Samoa from Fiji also meant we crossed the date line again.  We officially travelled back in time by a whole day.   Our flight here left Fiji at 1:45 AM on September 26^th Fiji time, and arrived at 4:35AM on September 25^th Samoa time.  How weird is that?!  Also, it was less than 2 hours in duration – so yeah, so ya, we were thrown for a loop.  Due to the fact that it was in the middle of the night, we also had to do some considerable waiting around the aiport before the flight in Fiji.  That was OK, as we had to do some things on the internet anyhow, primarily booking a flight to out of New Zealand, as we learned that we would not be let in to the country without one.  We had about 9 hours of waiting at the Nadi airport before boarding our plane, which was not as bad as it sounds due to the fact that it was air conditioned, and we were able to get on the internet, both of which were very welcome after a week in the heat and sun without any access to technology.   Funny enough we did not get to posting our blog entries, so the ones from Fiji that will be posted along with this one, will all appear to have been written at the same time, but that is not the case.  We have been writing and saving our entries as we go while our memories are fresh, but can only post when internet access is possible.

Anyhow, back to our Samoan experience....

We arrived in the middle of the night at the Apia airport, which we learned is not actually in Apia, but instead is about an hour west of there.   We had some concerns about our arranged driver to our resort, but were impressed to see a driver holding a sign with our names on it.  Lucky thing too, as there were loads of aggressive taxi drivers trying to sell us their services.  We did not realize the length of the drive either, and were again impressed with our driver`s ability to stay alert on the 3 hour journey—it was a long night for him.  We were a bit out of it, but we stopped a few times so our driver could have a cigarette and try to keep awake, and at each stop we were impressed with our beautiful, surroundings.  We were driving along a coastal highway pretty much the entire journey.  I say "highway" because technically that’s what it is, but it’s more a road, complete with speed bumps and signs alerting drivers to watch out for stray cattle and pigs—the speed limit was 25mph.  I did see a number of seemingly wild pigs and chickens on the trip, and no signs of fences or other divisions of property.  We are told that that is the Samoan way, a communal living.  Works for us, as we have been welcomed into this community where we are staying.  It is really just our good luck to be here, as we have been treated as VIPs being the first new booking for the place after the reopening.  There are other guests here as well, but many of them are repeat guests who were either here at the time of the Tsunami, or were frequent gusts here before the Tsunami who wanted to be here to help celebrate the re-opening.  Most of the people who travel to independent Samoa are New Zealanders, and this resort is no exception, with every other guest coming from there.  There is one group from New Zealand who love the people and the place so much, that they have been involved over the past year donating their time, skills, and resources towards the rebuilding.  It’s been interesting to hear all of their stories, especially about what happened during the tsunami. 

Tsunamis are not all that common here, with the last one occurring in 1902.  So while that is not common, it is often enough that people should probably be prepared for it.  Unfortunately however last year, they were not.  There was a big earthquake that everyone at the resort had felt.  Everyone had gathered to talk about it.  It was a brave and knowledgable little girl from New Zealand who had learned about the signs of a tsunami in school that ran around the resort alerting everyone to the fact that the water had been sucked way out to the reef and yelled to everyone that there was going to be a tsunami.  It because of her that everyone at this particular resort survived.  Others in the area were not so lucky.   People had to run up almost 100 metre sheer cliffs to reach the high ground, and many did not know exactly what to do, so some tried to outrun the Tsunami in their cars etc.  Each have their own story to tell.  It must have been quite the experience.   We are told there are some videos on YouTube that people have posted, but we have not yet had the chance to take a look.  Anyhow, it obviously had quite an impact on both the locals and the guests who were here at the time, and this grand re-opening is intended as a celebration of the efforts in rebuilding and rising up from the destruction.  So as I said, the roots of this celebration may be sad, but the mood right now is very celebratory, and spirits are high.  Added to the fact that we were walking zombies due to weird sleep when we arrived, the experience thus far has been quite surreal, and certainly at times indescribable—very serendipitous.  

After our long drive from the airport to the south east coast where this resort is located, we had a little snooze upon arrival.  We were woken around 11AM and asked to come to the main hut for some snacks and stuff.   We stumbled over there and into a huge party.  There were all sorts of figureheads there – the deputy prime minister, the village chief, the local pastor, and many others we could not identify, even Miss Samoa was there.  It was clear to us that it was a big deal, and we had just stumbled into it.  We knew it was the first night being open when we booked this place, but we had no idea of the party they would be having.  We listened to several remarks by the big wigs in native Samoan language, and were worried that we had stumbled into something like the marathon church service experience we had in Fiji, but after a while the remarks ended and the party began.  They served us appetizers, beer and wine, and eventually a really nice meal – all complimentary and totally unexpected, so that was a nice primer to a party to follow.  We saw traditional Samoan dancing and were also invited to participate ourselves---it was a lot of fun.  As I said, most of it was just so unexpected and so unique as to be indescribable-but the bottom line is that is was very enjoyable and very impressive.  We ended up partying well into night with everyone.  Lots of singing and dancing, and perhaps a bit too much to drink, but it was all a great time and we just felt so much warmth form the people, it was impressive.      

The Samoan dancing....

Miss Samoa.....

The dancers posing for a picture....

A look at our resort and the beach.....

A pineapple plant which I found interesting, they grow vertically from a long stem and ony one per plant, but looked cool I thought...

Our hosts (TJ, Adrian, Marila, and some other staff).....

The following day was a Sunday so it was obviously a bit more subdued.  Religion is very big here in Samoa, and Sunday is a day of rest—which suited us fine as we needed it after partying all night.  We did get out for a bit of sun and some fantastic snorkelling, but mostly rest.  Today we will try our luck snorkelling again in the amazingly clear waters.  We also found a little waterproof pouch for the camera that we will be trying, so with any luck we may have some pictures of all the fishies.   The coral is still a bit beaten up from the Tsunami, with color just starting to return in parts, but the snorkelling is still great, with many different types of fish only 15 metres off the beach.

Yours truly enjoying the sun and beautiful water..

Kim doing more patching on the beach... the sewing kit Elaine provided has already been very helpful!

The camera did turn out to work with the pouch underwater, so the photos are only half decent, but give you an idea anyway....

 A sea cucumber...

It’s our last night here tonight, and while we will be sad to leave, there is much more of Samoa to explore.  This entry will likely be posted from Apia, the biggest city on this island of Upolu, where we will sleep tomorrow night and try to organize some more explorations of the other island Savaì’i.  

All the best,

The Knotty Travellers