Week Eight
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| Nicholson Family in Western Samoa |
This picture makes me think about a particular item that my parents were told to bring with them when we moved to Samoa, which was buttons. Mum being a knitter and a sewer had a big round tin full of them, big, small, coloured, plain, fancy; all odd buttons. I think the idea was that these would make nice trinkets for the locals. I can't help but wonder, being the 70's whether we took the wrong buttons?
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| These buttons? |
Or These?
Wednesday 26th July
This morning Joanne, Bin and I headed down to the Samoa Shipping Office (next door to Paddles) to book our car ferry ticket to Savai’i. We queued up and were approached by a very helpful man who took Bin to determine what category our vehicle fit in. Being a small car we were an “A”, total cost $80 tala and that fare included the driver.
We originally wanted to travel on the 12noon sailing this Friday on the Lady Samoa III but that was fully booked so we are now on the 10am on the Samoa Express. Means a slightly earlier start but this is better as it will give us more time for tiki touring.
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| Samoa Express |
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| Lady Samoa III |
Loama rang last night and arranged to meet up with us at 10am this morning. Over the phone he told us that he now lives in Puipa’a, is divorced and has eight children. Mavaeao his father has passed away but his mum Susana (79) is still alive and lives with him. He works as a driver for the Prime Minister’s office.
It seemed he was slightly confused as to who I was, he kept asking if I was still married to my Samoan husband. Think he had me mixed up with the palagi girl who got pregnant to the Levaula College student, from the family that moved in after we left.
He promised to message the name and address of a cafe (that I had not heard of) where we should meet but he did not send the info through. I tried to message and call him again, but got no response, so sadly this meeting did not take place after all.
Instead we collected our laundry and swung by Lucky Foodtown to buy some items for a picnic lunch. We wanted to make the most of the beautiful day and head over to the South Coast. Joanne and Bin wanted to visit Matautu in the Lefaga District, which was the village where they did their Peace Corps immersion training.
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| Peace Corps @ Lefaga (1970's) |
Bin was given the Samoan name Pele all those years ago and Joanne was Ioane. Bin constantly amazes me with his Samoan language ability and practices speaking with the locals every chance he gets and they love it. We asked around, found the fale (now a ruin) where they stayed and learned that the family had moved inland after the cyclones in the early nineties.
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| Where J&B stayed in Matautu |
Would you believe the Return to Paradise Resort was open to day visitors today, so we could have had eaten there after all, instead of bringing our picnic lunch! The staff let us in for free so we could have a wander around and take some photos
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| Return to Paradise, Lefaga Beach |
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Afterwards we drove to the Savaia Clam Sanctuary where we ate our picnic of meat pies for J&B and a chicken roll for me. Then we jumped into the water. I was more than happy to take another look at these amazing shellfish. Joanne didn’t stay out too long as she had leaky goggles plus being in the water gave her motion sickness.
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| Savaia Giant Clam Sanctuary |
https://www.samoa.travel/plan-book/activities/savaia-giant-clam-sanctuary/
We continued on with our drive around the coast, looking for the Assembly of God church in Manono Uta, which J&B had been led to believe was where Koroseta had been posted when he returned to Samoa a few years ago. But they were misinformed, apparently he was based in Falelatai.
One thing that I have really noticed when we drive around Samoa in this day and age, is that no one really blinks any more at seeing a palagi. Years ago, when we drove through villages young kids would often run after us and yell out, "hey palagi, palagi". Nine times out of ten they would laugh then make rude hand signs at us. Perhaps its because most people have cars these days and barely anyone rides around on on the back of utes anymore.
At Mulifanua we stopped to see if we could purchase our passenger ferry tickets for Friday. We were told that this is not possible and we can only purchase these on the day of sailing.
It was a long day by the time we finally arrived back up the hill. Pablo had offered to cook dinner for us and had concocted a delicious variation of nacho’s with a tomato and chorizo sausage mix that was served over our corn chips.
Pablo had had an eventful afternoon. Whilst parked at a set of lights in town, he saw a young boy chasing his little sister. Suddenly the girl ran out onto the road to escape her brother but ran smack bang into Pablo’s stationery car and knocked herself out.
Their were several witnesses to the incident, including the mother who was very distraught. Pablo bundled her, the son and the still unconscious girl into his car and whizzed them all up to the hospital, where they were attended to immediately. He hung around for an hour or so before finally taking his leave, rather shaken by the whole episode.
Stayed up way too late working on week 7’s blog post!
Thursday 27th July
Happy 12th birthday to my terrific niece Stella.
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| Stella doing cat impersonations |
Didn’t quite finish week 7’s blog post before we headed out for the day. Bin wanted to take a quick look around the hospital, where he used to work. Plus he found their sleep apnea department, as he needed something to fix the perished strap on his mask and they were able to supply the part.
I also wanted to stop at the Seb & Rene Sports store, a few doors up from the hospital. Touted as the largest sporting goods and fishing gear store on the island, its owned by Mr Seb Kolhasse and his wife Rene; who were both teachers at SamCo when I was there. He taught Social Studies and Physical Education, while she taught shorthand, typing and book-keeping in the Commercial Studies department.
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| Rene Kolhasse Then & Now |
Rene was at the shop and I recognised her immediately. Seb, we were told, was out at the International Cricket Ground at Siusega, helping to lay down a new pitch, New regulations state that cricket pitches now need to be 6ft wide instead of the previous 4ft, so we went for a cruise out there to say hello.
https://www.facebook.com/SEB.RENEsportsLtd/
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| Samoa ICC - laying the new pitch |
Seb, now 81 years old, has had an illustrious career as a former first-class cricketer who represented Northern Districts and Auckland in the 1960’s. He is currently the president of the Samoa International Cricket Association, vice president of Samoa Softball and in 2008 acted as Chef de Mission for the Samoan team at the Beijing Olympics.
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| Seb Kolhasse Then & Now |
He claimed to remember me, but I think that maybe Seb was just being polite, however he was very gracious about having three people show up at the cricket grounds. He is quite gregarious and we had a good chat. He likes to spend his free time fishing, which was evident from the amount of tackle and fishing equipment he stocked at his sports store.
From there we drove around the perimeter of the Tuanaimato Sports Complex then poked our noses inside the impressive Church of St Teresa of the Child Jesus in Lepea. Holy mackerel! The stained glass and ornate wooden carvings across the ceiling were impressive. One garish feature was a life-sized sculpture of the last supper propped up in the pulpit.
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| Church of St Teresa of the Child Jesus |
We then headed back into town to find somewhere to eat. We stopped at Rosy’s Burger Bar but the place was deserted (think it must be a night time eating place). We then tried the Black Pepper Cafe, but they were serving full meals and as we were going to a buffet dinner that night we only wanted a snack, so we eventually settled on Nourish Cafe.
https://sites.google.com/view/rosysburgers
https://www.facebook.com/BlackPepperSamoa/
https://www.facebook.com/NourishCafeSamoa/
After lunch our next stop was the Peace Corps Office in Poinsettia House, up near the hospital. J&B had arranged to meet and be shown around the new premises by one of the directors there. I joined them for their tour.
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| Peace Corps Office |
The Peace Corps was first established by US President John F Kennedy in March 1961, which means they recently had their golden jubilee to celebrate fifty years. Their mission is to promote world peace and friendship, to build relationships and opportunity while strengthening bonds among nations. Apparently over 240,000 Americans have served in 142 countries.
The second intake of volunteers to Samoa since Covid, have recently arrived and are currently undergoing training. This current group is small and made up of only seven people. J&B reckon that back in their day there were groups of thirty volunteers arriving every three months.
We headed back up to the apartment to rest for an hour and freshen up before we went to my third fia fia night (in two weeks). This time at the Samoa Tradition Resort, in Siusega. Pablo met us there.
This would be by far the most authentic one I have seen so far. The emcee was excellent, spoke good English, was hilarious and really got the crowd involved. The food was great and while the show was initially a little Pan Pacific, the Samoan aspect was well done and employed lots of singing and dance; well priced too at $50 tala/pp. The fire dancer(s) were also incredible.
I got home and made some egg sandwiches to take for our breakfast on the ferry tomorrow plus finally finished my week 7 blog post and went live.
Friday 28th July
Another early morning start. Was awake with the birds. Finished packing for Savai’i, checked the radiator and topped up the windscreen wiper water in the car. We headed off about 7:45am and filled up with gas at Myna’s. Traffic wasn’t so bad and we arrived at Mulifanua Wharf about 8:50am.
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| Waiting to board |
J&B purchased their passenger ferry tix for $10 tala/pp then we joined our car to the queue and ate an egg sandwich while we waited. Joanne stayed in the car while Bin went exploring and I went to the loo. Suddenly I heard all the cars start up and move forward. Bloody typical.
Not to panic, they were still disembarking the vehicles that had come across from Savai’i. Before long we were being squeezed onto the boat. There wasn’t a lot of breathing room between vehicles and I had to fold in the wing mirrors. However, I was suitably impressed by their efficiency and the ferry left bang on time.
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| The Crossing |
There was a lounge area upstairs for us to sit in air conditioned comfort. It was a very smooth crossing and took one and a quarter hours. It was easier for J&B to walk off and meet me, once I drove off, than for them to try and squeeze back into the car while still on board.
We navigated our way to the Salelologa New Market for a wee browse. J&B were looking for t-shirts for their grandson’s while I found a couple of really nice lavalava’s which were finished nicely with sewn edges and lovely designs. For $4 tala I also bought three meat pie/samosa things and a packet of peanut puffs to add to our lunch.
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| Salelologa New Market |
Twenty minutes up the road was the Afu Aau waterfalls. When we visited this place all those years ago it was known as Nelson's Farm and the access road used to be on the other side of the river. I had a vague recollection of walking some way to get to the pool with its small waterfall. I definitely did not recall the bigger waterfalls a bit further upstream.
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| Nelson's Farm, Savai'i - Then & Now |
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| Afu Aau waterfalls |
We got talking to some other people at the waterfall, turns out that they were Methodist from the village of Sataua. Apparently one of Loama’s brother’s Fetuao is now the minister there. They also told us the name of a neighbouring village, before Sataua, where we would find Maifea. One of the men, whose name was Tauai Peni, claimed to be a cousin to Siaosi and Tafito and recalled a palagi family coming to stay at their village many moons ago.
There was also a Siapo (Tapa) cloth making place in nearby Palauli but the lady who usually did the demonstration was in Salelologa shopping, so we missed out. They did have a lovely garden though and we stopped to take photo’s of the Teuila (Samoa’s National Flower) and use their bathroom.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=238926864126787
A little further up the road was another waterfall called Mu Pagoa with a rare natural feature. The water tumbles about five meters directly into the sea. We were charged $5 tala/pp for the privilege of looking.
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| Mu Pagoa Waterfall |
https://www.samoa.travel/plan-book/activities/mu-pagoa-waterfall/
We then visited the Alofaaga Blowholes. It was a perfect day for seeing these in action. The tide was high and the southerly swell was strong and meant that the water spouted out very high and blew lots of spray. Cost of entry was $10 tala/pp and we could literally drive right up to them.
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| Alofaaga Blowholes - Then |
I remember visiting these blowholes when we came to Savai’i to stay with our Samoan family but I don’t recall them as being quite so spectacular that time. I’m pretty sure we also had to walk quite a distance over the lava rocks to reach them.
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| Alofaaga Blowholes - Now |
https://www.samoa.travel/plan-book/activities/alofaaga-blowholespa-sopoia-cave/
From there it was another 20-30 minute drive to our accommodation at Satuiatua Beach Fales. We thought we would be sharing one room with a double and a single bed but we ended up with adjoining rooms with our own bathrooms. We paid $130 tala/pp and that included breakfast and dinner.
https://www.samoa.travel/plan-book/samoa-accommodation/satuiatua-beach-fales/
Once we had settled in we had a swim. There was a lot of coral and fish but the tide was on its way out so I just snorkeled along the edges. The current was very strong.
We freshened up for dinner then went across to the dining fale. Joanne had a veggie omelette, I had a chicken stirfry and Bin had a chicken curry. The food was perfectly acceptable. I taught J&B how to play Skip Bo. Bin was the winner. It was not a late night I was absolutely beat.
Saturday 29th July
It was a very firm mattress and I managed to get some sleep, although I was glad to get up in the morning. Unfortunately, it was a bit overcast and drizzly but pleasantly cool today. We trundled over the road for breakfast about 8:30am. They served papaya, tea, coffee, toast and pancakes, although they agreed to make me a veggie omelette as I am not a fan of pancakes.
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| Dining Fale, Satuiatua |
We didn’t need to check out until 11:00 and as we didn’t have a huge drive today, we played another couple of games of Skip Bo before we left. We missed the sign at Fagafau for Lover’s Leap, a 65m drop into the ocean, which is temporarily closed.
Legend has it there was a famine in the village of Salega. Believing their family had left them there to starve, a blind woman named Funea and her daughter Salofa jumped off the cliff. As soon as the hungry pair hit the water they transformed into a turtle and a shark.
We did speak to some other tourists who had stopped there and they said you couldn’t see anything as it was very overgrown and they didn’t feel confident getting too close to the edge. The surf was also pretty wild again today.
https://www.samoa.travel/plan-book/activities/lovers-leap/
I had forgotten that villages often have two names, Tai for those on the coast and Uta for those inland. We found the turn off to Neiafu-Tai, Maifea’s village and his Methodist Church easily enough. What a beautiful remote spot he lives in. The fales along the coast leading into the village would be an idyllic place to spend a lazy Sunday siesta on a sunny day.
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| Maifea's Church & House |
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| Fales at Neiafu-Tai Village |
His wife, Fualole, is a beautiful looking woman and when we showed up at their house she knew straight away who I was. I think Maifea must have been preparing for his Sunday sermon and it took him a few minutes to get presentable for visitors.
He apologised for not answering my text. They had been busy with other ministers visiting after the Methodist conference. They invited us into their sitting area where we chatted and reminisced. J&B really enjoyed meeting him again and as Maifea and Fualole had both lived and worked in Honolulu, they had some common ground.
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| Maifea & Fualole |
We were talking about some of the other people that we used to know at Levaula and I made enquiries again about Fale, Dad’s apprentice. I had the sense that people knew what had had happened to him but weren’t willing to divulge the details, so I figured it must have been something bad.
Maifea came clean and told us some shocking news. His understanding was that Fale, who had moved to American Samoa, became quite ill due to his dependency on drugs and subsequently died. I'm still unsure when this actually occured but Maifea confessed that he missed Fale a lot, as he was always a happy chappy with a ready smile.
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| RIP Fale Siuga (circled) |
Mum thought of Fale as our avenging angel. Apparently if anyone said a bad word about our family then he would bail them up about it afterwards. It really is sad news but we appreciate knowing what happened to him.
Maifea also seemed to think that Naomi Lokeni married Jim Brokaw, the American Peace Corps who worked as a carpenter at the SMLD. Will have to investigate this lead further.
We took some group photos before taking our leave about 1ish. I got another big bear hug from Maifea and Joanne commented after our departure that she had never forgotten his perfect teeth and hair, he used to rock an afro back then.
The heavens opened as we continued our journey through to the neighbouring village of Tufutafoe, which is home to Koroseta’s family. We made enquiries with a woman who was walking along the road. She didn't speak very good English and gave vague directions but she was able to show us the Kapok, a cotton-like plant fibre, from the seed pods on the tree.
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| Kapok |
Joanne & Bin often mentioned to Koroseta that they wanted to visit his family at their village but he always put them off saying it was at the end of the road and too far to travel. And he wasn’t far wrong. A few kilometres further and we were at the most Western point of Savai'i, Cape Mulinu’u aka Sunset Point.
https://www.samoa.travel/plan-book/activities/cape-mulinuu/
Not that we were going to be able to see a sunset today, as it was very overcast and showery. It is a very sacred place though, according to local legend this is where the dead pass into the underworld.
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| Road to Falealupo |
We continued on to check into our accommodation at the Falealupo Beach Fales.
There was a bit of a hiccup and the open beach fale with en-suite that we had booked had been assigned to some other guests.
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| Where we were supposed to stay |
Luckily they had another self contained space, this one with walls, that they could rent to us for $100 tala/pp, which included breakfast and dinner. We weren't too unhappy about this because it bucketed down during the night.
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| Where we ended up staying & the view |
https://www.samoa.travel/plan-book/samoa-accommodation/falealupo-beach-fales/
The couple who manage the accommodation are called Save and Siu. They spent time in NZ where Save studied hotel management while hubby Siu trained to be a chef. We got chatting and she said she knew where Koroseta’s family lived, so once we were settled she accompanied us back to Tufutafoe to meet them. They had to move inland from the coast after the cyclone.
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| Koroseta's family's home & tribe of kids |
We met a large tribe of children along with Koroseta’s nephew Ta’afaga, named for Koroseta's brother, who we had all met many years ago. Ta’afaga (elder brother) was and still is a teacher, at Pesega. I remember that he used to walk with crutches because he had been afflicted with polio as a child. Nephew Ta’afaga rang his uncle, so we got to speak to him and we took photos with Koroseta’s parents grave.
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| J&B with Koreseta's parents grave |
We returned to Falealupo and because it was still a bit wet, we sat indoors and played Skip Bo until it was time to eat. Siu is an excellent chef and the food was delicious. There was rice, chicken curry, tuna pasta and some stir fry veggies. We resumed the cards after dinner before bedtime.
Sunday 30th July
I’m feeling very sleep deprived. The water pump located next to our room was really noisy and kept turning on during the night. Unfortunately it is still overcast and drizzly. We also had an early start as Save and Siu wanted us to eat breakfast before they went to church. They served papaya, coconut, boiled eggs, toast, tea and coffee.
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| Falealupo Beach Fales |
We hung out in the room until it was time to check out. It was lovely to listen to the sound of the surf crashing accompanied by the beautiful singing from the local church as we played Skip Bo. I appear to be on a losing streak. J&B keep winning.
Our first stop of the day was the giant footprint of Moso. Even though it was a Sunday, the custodians kindly let us take a look. According to the myth, Moso was a Samoan God who fathered two sons. A Fijian king travelled to Samoa with the intent of marrying Moso’s children only to discover they were not female.
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| Fale @ Moso's Footprint - Then & now |
The disappointed King returned to Fiji and severed his friendship with Moso, who in his attempt to restore their friendship stamped his right foot in Savai’i and left foot in Fiji, as a symbol of their infinite bond. We paid $10 tala/pp to view this landmark.
https://www.samoa.travel/plan-book/activities/mosos-footprint/
A little further up the road was a cave called House of Rock but being a Sunday it was closed, and the Canopy Walkway was temporarily closed; deemed too unsafe at the moment. We could have walked through the rainforest but I didn’t have the right footwear, especially after all the recent rain.
https://www.samoa.travel/plan-book/activities/house-of-rock/
Our tiki-tour saw us take a picturesque secondary road where we discovered an abandoned village before we looped back onto the main road. The road was a bit rocky and potholed in places. When we got halfway we concluded that it was probably more suited to a 4WD but we got through okay taking it nice and slow.
We then stopped at Sataua District Hospital, which opened in 2015, for Bin to have a wee look. He recently retired as an RNFA (Surgical Nurse First Assistant) at Queen’s Hospital in Honolulu.
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| Sataua District Hospital |
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| Selesele property, Sataua |
There was a young guy sitting at a fale near the road who approached us. While we were conversing a ute with an old lady and a few others came down the driveway. I could hear the old lady, cackling and giving the young guy a hard time about the palagi’s. She sure changed her tune when I pulled out my phone with all the photos! I discovered her name was Enina, sister-in-law to Matile (my Samoan grandmother - Siaosi & Tafito’s mother).
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| Enina |
One of the passengers in the car was Lavinia Ioane, visiting the aiga (family) from Australia. She spoke excellent English and was able to translate and was very excited about the photos. We connected on facebook so that I could share the pics with her as she wanted to distribute among other family members.
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| Across the road from Selelsele property |
We took our leave and continued on to our accommodation, the Vaimoana Seaside Lodge in Asau, which is also owned by the same people who run the Island Grill Restaurant in Apia.
We were very impressed with the accommodation, we had booked a Triple Moana Room which was cute and came with an en-suite, air conditioning and a sea view.
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A light lunch was the first thing on our minds, I had a toasted sandwich while J&B shared grilled prawns, then we spent the afternoon exploring the premises, swimming and relaxing until dinner time. I was feeling pretty fatigued after the lack of sleep the night before.
I taught J&B how to play the card game 5 Crowns over cocktails. Dinner was delicious, Bin & I ate chicken while Joanne had Spag Bog. We all crashed out pretty early. We made the decision to turn the a/c off and open the fly-screened windows so we could hear the surf out on the reef. Probably not the best idea as it was pretty loud and as a result I didn’t sleep well again.
https://www.vaimoanaseasidelodge.com/en/
Monday 31st July
Not sure why but Bin’s alarm went off at 6:30am. I also have reception here and my phone rang at 7:07am. It was Tafito Selesele. The bush telegraph must have been very busy overnight as he had arrived at Sataua yesterday afternoon (we must have just missed him) to news that we had visited.
He wanted to know our location. He had some meetings that morning but would we be available to meet for lunch? He offered to meet us at our hotel. So we roused ourselves out of bed to eat our included in the price breakfast. Lucky we had arranged a late checkout for our room.
Tafito arrived a little earlier than our prearranged time, but we were ready. I was glad to finally catch up with him, especially because I leave Samoa at the end of this week. I can appreciate that he is a very busy man who travels abroad a lot with his Government portfolio, so it was nice he made the time to meet us.
Accompanied by his driver Junior, we spent an enjoyable few hours discussing his dead relatives and other people we once knew. His father Selesele died in Nov 1999 aged 95 and his mother Matile died in June 2012 aged 98.
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| Selesele & Matile |
I didn’t realise but when we visited the family all those years ago we also met Matile’s father, Lafai and his second wife Togipau. Lafai died in 1986 aged 106. He had 9 children to his first wife Taupou and went on to father 11 more kids with Togipau. That’s twenty children!!!
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| Lafai & Togipau |
I’m amazed by this longevity, considering the life expectancy for males in Samoa is 70.31 and females is 75.5. So it is sad that Tafito’s brother Siaosi Selesele and his wife Hana died relatively young. When we knew them they only had three children but Tafito tells me they went on to have two more.
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| Siaosi Selesele |
The eldest daughter Matile, has a Tongan husband and now lives in American Samoa. The second daughter Siulepa is married to a Reverend and lives in the Lefaga district. The third child and eldest son Fa’atauva’a is a musician and also lives in American Samoa. The fourth child and second son Darwin lives in Sydney and the youngest, also a son, Loleni lives in the United States.
Tafito himself has been married to Carrie for thirty years. She was a flight attendant for Qantas. He showed us a photo and she is absolutely stunning. A half-caste from the Betham/Laurenson family they have eight children and twelve grandchildren, none of whom currently live in Samoa.
He and Carrie reside on their plot of land in the hills of Aleisa. He has a small farm there, ten acres, his passion project, where he grows mixed crops. He likes to get to Savai'i as often as he can plus likes to fish in his spare time. He is recently back from Geneva (his favourite place) and has upcoming trips lined up to Fiji, India and the Philippines.
Tafito very kindly paid for our lunches and after taking some photos he hit the road; he is opening an event in Salelologa in the morning. We also made tracks. We took a wee drive around Asau then out to their port and airstrip. Neither appear to be active!
I do remember visiting one large fale in Asau on our family Savai’i trip which Tafito identified as the home of the then Prime Minister Tupua Tamasese Tupuola Tufuga Efi (1976-1982). I understand that he was then appointed as Samoa’s Head of State from 2007-2017. The large fale is no longer there.
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| Head of State Fale, Asau |
It was pretty hot and none of us felt like visiting the tourist spots like the La'auolaola and Peapea lava tube caves or the Mataolealelo spring pool.
https://www.showcaves.com/english/other/caves/Laauolola.html
https://www.samoa.travel/plan-book/activities/peapea-cave-savaii/
https://www.samoa.travel/plan-book/activities/mataolealelo-spring/
Instead we headed straight to our accommodation, Stevensons at Manase so we could hang out pool side.. There are a number of beach fale options to stay at in Manase but Ariane and Courtney’s place is the only hotel and was easy to find.
https://www.stevensonsresortsamoa.com/en/
Our deluxe suite was large with two double beds, one single bed and a massive couch, which you could also sleep on if need be. They had utilised lava rock to create a feature wall in the room and were quite creative with it in the shower, where they had created a water feature. Very cool, wish I had taken a pic of it.
We swam, talked to some other guests, watched the sunset then changed for dinner. I had a seafood pasta while Joanne & Bin shared a steak. We played 5 Crowns and were the last to leave the restaurant. Got a message from Rapi, inviting me to lunch on Thursday.
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| Finally got a sunset, Stevenson's at Manase |
Tuesday 1st August
We were on the road by 10am. Our first stop was only eight minutes up the road at Avao and Vaipouli. Joanne & Bin wanted to revisit this village as this was where they spent their first weekend in Samoa. The Peace Corps wanted them to have a school experience and there used to be a well-established girls boarding school in the village, now abandoned.
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| Joanne, 1st w/end in Samoa |
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| Vaipouli Girls Boarding School Gates |
We then made a quick photo stop a couple more minutes up the road at the Savai’i Lagoon Resort, the place Tony and Melissa used to manage. It was quaint.
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| Savai'i Lagoon Resort |
https://www.savaiilagoon.co.nz/
From there we headed to the Sato’alepai Wetlands to see the Auala (Green) turtles. It is purportedly a sanctuary and we were told that the villagers release the turtles back into the ocean once they are ready to mate. The turtles also like to eat esi (papaya).
We had the place to ourselves and the girl pulled one out of the water for us to hold and look at more closely. Man it was heavy. We opted not to swim. I don’t reckon they should let people get in the pool enclosure with them. It’s totally okay to see them at this venue but if you want to swim with the turtles then I would recommend you do it in their natural habitat. Entry was $8 tala/pp.
https://samoapocketguide.com/best-places-to-see-turtles-in-samoa/
Our last stop before heading to catch the ferry was the Sale’aula Lava Fields.
We walked to the Virgins Grave. According to the locals it marks the burial place of a girl so pure that the lava flowed around her grave, leaving it untouched.
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| Fale @ The Virgins Grave - Then & Now |
We also saw the ruins of the majestic LMS Church. Two meters of lava flowed through its door and was eerily imprinted by corrugated iron when the roof collapsed.
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| LMS Church ruins |
The lava fields were formed when Mt Matavanu erupted between 1905-1911. The lava flowed over 100 square kilometres (40 square miles) of countryside to the sea and buried five villages. The depth of the flow in some parts was 400ft. The colonial German administration at the time relocated unsettled villagers to Salamumu and Leauva’a on Upolu.
We had visited all those years ago and it was kinda the same but different. I don’t recall there being a pathway to the virgins grave, we had to find our way over the lava field. I also don’t recall the lava fields having as much vegetation as it does now or the area being so populated like it is now.
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| Sale’aula Lava Fields |
https://www.samoa.travel/plan-book/activities/saleaula-lava-field/
The road to Salelologa was for the most part a nicely paved wide road. A far cry from the dusty corrugated gravel road that once circumnavigated the island. I remember it seemed to take forever to drive around the island forty odd years ago, not so now. We were also surprised to discover one set of traffic lights at the turn off to Salelologa and the wharf.
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| Traffic Lights, Salelologa |
Tafito had rung us earlier, to double check that we were still on the 2pm ferry. Coincidentally he was going to be on the same sailing. We arrived at the wharf to find him and Junior waiting for us with VIP tickets for the air conditioned lounge on the larger ferry ‘Lady Samoa III’. Cost was $18 tala/pp and also included a drink (tea or coffee) and snack (noodles or sandwich).
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| Tafito's MOH vehicle |
Tafito had also kindly provided us with three packed lunches, consisting of chicken, sausage, pasta salad, stir fried veggies and cooked bananas. What a feast. We definitely won’t need the snack on the ferry! He had procured these from his opening that morning and was wearing yellow to commemorate it being breast feeding week.
The VIP lounge was right at the front of the ferry and there was quite a big swell out there. Poor Joanne was looking decidedly green around the gills. She did well not to throw up. Bin spent most of the hour long journey out on deck admiring the scenery. I stayed put to keep an eye on Joanne.
Once we got back to Upolu we hit rain, pretty much for the whole drive to Vaoala Heights. We arrived at the apartment around 4:30pm so we had a bit of time to unpack and unwind before we headed to meet the Kamu family for dinner at 7pm at the Island Grill.
They had been there awhile and we were a big group, consisting of Becky, Alo, his wife Mona Lisa, her mother Iva, Dorothy, her husband Niko Toma, Pablo, J&B and I. We were in the private room and the accoustics weren’t great, so it was a bit hard to hear oneself think over all the conversation.
https://www.facebook.com/islandgrillsamoa/
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| Dinner with Kamu's @ Island Grill |
Dorothy’s husband looked familiar for some reason. Turns out that he grew up in Lower Hutt. He attended Petone Tech and was a carpenter by trade before travelling the world as a fire dancer for a Pacific Troupe.
I was gutted that the restaurant had run out of lobster, so had to settle for the grilled fish! It wasn’t a late night but it was a lovely evening full of interesting conversation and lots of reminiscing. The Kamu’s were very generous and paid for the meal.
Pablo had to disappear towards the end of the meal to take a work video call, hence he had bought his own car. After dinner, Joanne, Bin and I headed to Scoops for one final ice cream. We also topped up the gas in the car. Then we all thankfully crashed out in bed.
Wednesday 2nd August
Today is Joanne & Bin’s last full day and we have a long list of things we need to do today. It started with me dropping off a load of laundry at Kentos then stopping at Myna’s to buy bread and papaya for our breakfast. By 10am we were out the door and on our way to visit Donna Kamu in Siusega. En-route we stopped at the CCK Coffee factory to buy packets for gifts.
https://mysamoa.co/products/cck-samoa-coffee-500g
It was lovely to see Donna again to say goodbye. Dorothy and Becky were also there and they presented us with gifts of lavalava’s and earrings to take home to the family. It was totally unexpected but very thoughtful of them.
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| Grace, Erana & Stella with their gifts |
We stayed for a little over an hour and had a lovely morning tea before continuing on with our day.
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| Visiting Donna Kamu |
Our next mission was to find Atina Aab. Maifea had informed us that she was living in Lotopa. Her husband was an American Peace Corps by the name of Russ Aab and he was the principal of Levaula College before Ian McKenzie. A heavy smoker, he sadly passed away from lung cancer a few months ago, in April 2023.
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| Atina Aab |
Last J&B had heard the family were living in American Samoa. My memory of Russ and Atina was visiting them in their flat, above the school. They had a young son (Kirk?) at the time. I was super impressed because they used to play a lot of Scrabble and I had never seen such high scores in a game before.
After making a few enquiries at a local store we easily found Atina and made it inside her house just as the heavens opened. J&B enjoyed their catch up with her and expressed their sadness at hearing the news about Russ. We met a couple of their grandchildren who were staying with her.
From there we made a quick stop at Plantation House to buy some other lovely items and trinkets for gifts before heading back into town to Milani Caffee for lunch. Our toasted sandwiches and croissants were delicious.
https://www.facebook.com/PlantationHouseSamoa/
https://www.facebook.com/milanicaffe.samoa.9/
After we ate we stopped in at Carruther’s Eveni and Tanoa to look for T-shirts for J&B’s grandson’s Colin and Everett. Joanne also bought a new outfit for herself at Tanoa. We then popped down to Siva Afi to buy T-shirts for Bin and their son Nathan and a lovely purse for Wing, his wife..
We then found the Koko Loa wholesaler (Wilex) and bought some packets of drinking chocolate, for gifts. After that we collected the laundry before heading down to the Fugalei Market for one final looksy then we swung by Kriegs Barber/Tattoo shop to look at tattoo designs, find out the cost and availability for tomorrow. I am keen to get one!
https://www.facebook.com/WilexSamoa/photos/a.711485522266741/2116179901797289/?type=3
We got back to the apartment at 5:30pm. With an hour before dinner I sorted out all the stuff I was planning to leave behind and did a partial pack to see whether I was going to be able to fit everything into my suitcase! It’s gonna be a tight squeeze!
Pablo, J&B and I head to the Pickled Lam for dinner. I had invited the neighbours to join us but they were unable due to a prior engagement. Rugby hero, Tana Umaga was dining at the table next to us. Pablo was super excited and was one of the diners who flocked to get their photo with him.
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| Tana & Joanne's new outfit |
Our meals were excellent, I had fish, Joanne had beef, Paul lamb and Bin a chicken dish. J&B generously treated us to the meal which was lovely of them, as I am a bit low on tala, until I get the bond back on the rental car tomorrow.
https://www.pickledlamscalinis.com/
On our return to Vaoala Heights, I hot-spotted Bin’s phone so that Joanne could transfer all their photo’s across to me. Then we all crashed out.
Thursday 3rd August
Pablo went to work early. J&B came up around 9am. We ate esi (papaya) then headed off around 9:45am. We got to the airport in plenty of time. We sat around and chatted for a bit before I made my leave. It’s always hard to say goodbye. We’ve had such an amazing time hanging out and revisiting our shared past together.
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| Love this pic of Joanne on the Levaula College malae |
I'm blessed that we have maintained our friendship over the years. I learned a lot about their experience here in Samoa, especially the role both my parents played in regards to Joanne's pregnancy and subsequent birth of their son Nathan.
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| Mum with baby Nathan Mochizuki |
It was Val McKenzie's turn to do the school run so Bin had already left for work when Joanne went into labour. Between contractions she made her way out of her house to knock on our door. Mum took one look at her and called Dad home from work. He immediately drove Joanne to the hospital and Mum contacted Bin to meet them there. From all accounts Nathan arrived pretty quickly.
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| Joanne, Colin, Everett, Nathan, Wing & Bin Mochizuki |
Thank you Joanne and Bin for being intrepid and a part of this cool journey.
On my way back into town I met with Maifea. He was in Apia as he had to attend a funeral at Faleula. I met him at the SMLD store and we drove to Siusega so he could briefly show me the house he is building there. I couldn't stay long as I had to get back into town but it was great to see him once more and say a final good bye.
I was supposed to meet Rapi for lunch at Roko’s but he had messaged via Ariane to say that he had an urgent thing come up and had to go to court, so she offered to meet me for lunch instead. It was more convenient for her to meet at Nourish Cafe. We had a great chat and a lovely meal, I finally got to try their quesadilla!
https://www.facebook.com/rokosrestaurant/
https://www.samoa.travel/plan-book/activities/nourish-cafe/
I had hoped to catch up with an old schoolmate Cam Wendt but our schedules did not line up and now I have run out of time. He works for the Government and is currently the Assistant CEO at the Ministry of Public Enterprises.
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| Cam Wendt |
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| Last Empire Car Wash |
https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Last-Empire-Car-Wash-Detailing-100064082251413/
I returned the car and said my final goodbyes to Alo and Mona Lisa.
Then I went to get my tattoo. A perpetual reminder of my connection to Samoa. I got a hibiscus with traditional Samoan tatau design on my forearm. I paid $250 tala and it took about 30mins. Wasn’t painful at all. Pablo picked me up from town afterwards and ran me back up to the apartment then he had to go back to work.
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| New ink |
I off-loaded my clothes and toiletries to Sela plus gave her, Sila and Michael some small Kiwi souvenirs. When Celine got home from work I gave her and Gabriel some little gifts too. I then re-packed while I waited for Pablo to return as were headed to Koko Banana Grill for dinner. It was my treat and while the prices were steep the portion sizes were massive. Pablo had a pasta dish, fettucine and I had a chicken schnitzel. I also indulged and had a cocktail and we both had ice cream sundaes for dessert.
https://www.facebook.com/kokobanana.bar.grill/
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| Paul Irving aka Pablo |
I'd like to give a big shout out to Pablo for coming to my rescue and offering me a place to stay. Thank you for your flexibility in letting my friends invade your space and also for your generosity in allowing me use of your car. You were a real life-saver and have made a huge difference to my trip down memory lane.
Can’t believe it is my last night!!!
Friday 4th August
OMG something bit me just above my elbow about 3am this morning. I don’t know what the hell it was but it stung like crazy for a good couple of hours and I was unable to get back to sleep. I put ice on it straight away and applied some pawpaw cream.
It may have been a spider, a scorpion or a centipede? I couldn’t find anything in my bed, on the floor or in the room. Very strange. Whatever it was I hope it hasn’t laid any eggs in there, there is definitely two puncture marks.
But damn, I’m sooooo sleep deprived. I’m looking forward to getting back to NZ and hopefully catching up on some zzz’s. Then my phone (messenger) rang at 7am, it was my friend Amanda Lee (from Nelson) calling from Edinburgh, Scotland where she is visiting her daughter.
Pablo was unable to take me to the airport as originally planned, so I dropped him at work and the new arrangement was that Sila would use Pablo’s car to drive me out there instead.
But before that I showered, ate esi and sent some farewell messages. My phone plan had run out yesterday so Joanne had given me her sim card to use today. I then met up with the neighbour for a farewell coffee at the Pickled Lam.
Then it was time to go to the airport. Sela couldn’t come with us as she needed to clean. I gave Sila $100 tala for his time, which is roughly what it would cost to take a taxi. He doesn’t speak a lot of English so we listened to music. He did say that he thought I got ripped off with the cost of my tattoo and that I should only have paid about $80 tala, humph!
The flight was on time and I cleared customs and immigration no problem although I did get pinged $70 tala for excess baggage, hmm guess Pablo’s hand scales weren’t accurate after all.
Can’t believe I am going, will miss this place (again). I can definitely see myself returning, maybe I should organise guided tours here??? One thing I do know, I definitely won’t be leaving it for another forty three years before I come back!
When I cast my mind to when I left Samoa in December 1980. One of my dear friends at the time, who wishes to remain nameless, hosted a farewell party for me. There was quite a crowd there. It was a fun night and I have never forgotten that she and Lynette spent quite a bit of time on the cakes - six sponges. Each one was cut out to make a letter, that spelt my name - CONNIE.
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| Farewell Party - Dec 1980 |
How lucky I was to have such amazing friends back then and I am grateful to still be friends with many of them today. It has been amazing to meet new people and reconnect with those I had lost touch with but there are still a few people in these photos that I haven't been able to track down. If you do recognise or have information on any of them then do please let me know.
I think the hardest thing that I really struggled with on my return to NZ and attending Te Aroha College was making friends and fitting back in. My horizons had definitely been broadened due to my meeting many people from different places while living in Samoa, plus it didn't help that I had picked up a strange hybrid American sounding accent.
My peers in our small home town were living a very narrow existence and I found them to be quite shallow - all they seemed to care about was their tan and how many boys they had hooked up with over the summer. I wonder whether it might have been easier if we had relocated somewhere new, where I was unknown.
But living in Samoa was a truly life-changing experience for me, one not easily forgotten.
Thank you so much for coming on this journey with me. I hope you enjoyed sharing in my return to paradise and that it has given you a bit of insight into what life was like here back then for our family.
I certainly didn't expect this blog to turn into such a monster read. Who knew I had so many memories to unearth. It has inspired me to perhaps finally start my long-awaited memoir!
Tofa Soifua
onepurplefish
PS Some photo credits belong to Joanne & Bin Mochizuki
PPS Apologies. Life on Great Barrier Island has been surprisingly busy plus I was having some technical issues with my computer retrieving the photos. Tripping over my gumboots while walking the dog, spraining my left ankle and bashing my right knee has been a strong message from the universe to slow down and has forced me to stop dragging the chain and finish this final instalment LoL.
PPPS Enjoy this weeks quotes
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