Well here we are in Auckland! Auckland you say? Yes Auckland. Okay here is the story... So we have been on the islands of Upolo and Savaii, Samoa, pronouned Sah-mooah, by the way. Well we had a good time at our first beach destination of Virgin Cove,it was the only resort/place to stay on the south side of Upolo that had not been destroyed by the tsunami back in Sept. We arrived into Apia the capital and found our original port of call hotel, the Pincess Tui Inn,suffice to say the Princess had let herself go a bit and well off we went across the island to Virgin cove. So again Virgin Cove was very nice, great beach swimming etc, we had a very nice garden bungalow,wanted a beach fale, (fales are little raised open air huts on the beach) but they were all booked so we were upgraded for the same price, good deal. Swam,ate, watched the fire dancers, (pics and videao to come) and had a really good time. Then we started understanding the exhange rate and exactly what we were paying and like good budget minded travellers we thought,hmm, best to stretch our dollar and move on to the next island and fale!
So there we were just after breakfast packing up and waiting for a taxi to take us to the noon ferry across to the bigger island of Savaii. We managed to make the ferry, the ride across was prety good, think BC ferries but with a lot more rust and charm, lol. The water was amazing, colours like you see in the movies! We met a couple of aussie doctors in training on the ferry and they told us about the local buses to take,which look like tricked out 1960's school buses. The buses are all BRIGHTLY painted with multple colours, religious slogans (very religious here, a church every few kilometers) complete with bright yellow feathers lining most of the windshields! It cost 6 tala to ride to our new Tanu Beach resort destination or 60 tala by taxi, a no brainer! The exhange is roughly $US10=22.4 Tala. Riding with the locals was totally cool, our back packs tied to the rear flip down emergency exit and we were off! We met new people there a German couple and a Japanese woman teaching there and the germans were heading to Tanu beach so we just went with them. I scored some points with the locals when I gave up my seat to a woman with a baby. And then we arrived.
The place was nice,a bit like a kids camp though, meals at certain times and a bell rang when it was meal time. Communal eating like a large outdoor cafeteria. Very strong current at the beach,I swam for ten minutes agains it and then returned in 4 1/2 min. Saw some amazing fish and sights, oh I opened a coconut on a rock back in Virgin cove, took about 20 min to half hour,but with my trusty diving knife I did it in 10 min here! By the way there is a lot of juice that comes out of a coconut! Well the next day or two we beached it and ate and went on a whirlwind island tour in one day! We, swam in a waterfall pool, saw blowholes at the lava flow areas, (the sea crashes in and drives water up channels creating gysers), then went on a canopy walk (basicly climbed a wooden staircase up a large tree and went backdown), then stopped to get tala from the bank, stopped at a local market, were offered a chance to see a lava flow but after 7 hours of the six of us passed and opted to swim with sea turtles instead. Our final stop, it has been go go go all day, heat, rain,heat, swim,eat, cramped van and local boys singing Christmas carols in the back of the van. So swimming with Sea turtles,seemed really cool at first,till we realized they were basicly being held captive and could never cimb out of the water and or rest, they were always looking for a way out. As were we at this point.
So the next morning the other four in our group were leaving, well we got on the internet cafe and made it happen and took a Mario Andretti driven taxi ride to the noon ferry (left around 10:45 am) diven by a local chief, who managed to pick his wife and daughter up along the way, stop and have a chat with his brother, then drop with family off at the hospital for some sort or check up and drove at high speed in the oncoming lane quite a bit, but got us there in one peice and with 15 min to spare! We then ferried across, got a free ride with Tui a realy nice guy that offered a friend we made, Cormac (from Wellington) and he gave all four of us a ride into Apia. We got our tickets changed to Auckland, we were supposed to arrive Dec 18, best deal to leave was the next day so we took it! (actually arranged on the phone back at the internet cafe, but had to come in and pay for it in person.) We then hung out with Corma and Gemma at our hotel,they were staying with friends. Their friends worked for the NZ commision and one Leigh, was a health offical for Tokala, a series of atolls nearby. Well we were wined and dined at the local yaht club (feeding the skinny feral cats circling our table which struck like a pride of lions whenever food was dropped to them) Eva (NZ commision offical) was bitten on the finger when she tried to shoo one of them away!
Okay so the next morning(by the way our original room in the hotel was a bunker, not kidding really) well the tv etc didn't work so we wre moved to a nice wood panelled room up stairs, off for coffee with the friends at 10:30, a taxi to the airport (all in torrential rain fall) hop on Air NZ flight 265 and a little time travel later (left on Dec 2nd arrived Dec 3rd) all within 4 hours and here we are in Auckland! Wheeee! Okay sitting at the computer in my cousin Bernie and he partner Paul's house and writing to you all! Andrea and I are happy travellers!
