Our last couple of days in Fiji were fun and we were sad to be saying bye to island paradise! We met up with Emma and Liam (friends we had met at Naqalia) at Beachcomber (a small party island in The Mamanucas) and we arrived early evening so started on finishing the gin, bet on a few crabs and enjoyed catching up about each others island experiences! 

The next flight was to Samoa and it was an early one. It was also smooth so I was relaxed – using the hypnosis technique!! We had a warm welcome in the form of humidity at Apia airport and went to collect our car, daydreaming of air con. 

We spent a couple of hours in the main city ‘Apia’ had a coffee (good coffee) a beer, went to the local flea market, bus station and searched for a book shop! The buses are very cool here and everything is very colourful. 
We made our way through the middle of the island to our home for the week and passed amazing gardens and brightly coloured houses with friendly locals waving as we passed. Pinks, oranges, greens and yellows – it was amazing! The weather was very tropical and so the grass was very lush and the flowers and trees were gorgeous! 

Arriving at our beach fales at about 5:30pm, we moved in to our little green bungalow and then met in the main area for dinner. It was rainy and windy but we didn’t care, it was such a nice spot and we had definitely chosen well. Dinner was good, a communal style dinner and we met lots of people from Yorkshire, Australia, Switzerland and Argentina who had been staying at Taufua beach fales for a few days now.

We woke up in the morning and set off to explore the area. Ryan donned his new sarong and thought it was amazing and was almost sad that he had not discovered a skirt sooner! I think I was wearing mine also, which is more normal being a girl and all. Heading to ‘To Sua ocean trench’ first – a place we had heard a lot about and seen so many pictures of. It didn’t disappoint, the walls covered in greenery and vines and a long ladder down to the water. We headed down and jumped in, it was amazing, so pretty and a real hidden gem! 

A few families were there at the time we visited but we had the place to ourselves for about 20 minutes after they left and it was just amazing.

   
    
    
    
 

After walking around the pristine grounds and down to the rock pools we then headed to a couple of view points to see some of the islands waterfalls. Passing pigs, piglets, horses and suicidal dogs trying to attack your car on the way; waving at the friendly Samoans and taking in all of the views. The waterfalls were extremely full due to the amount of rain over the past few days and we just stood in awe at the amount of water!! 

 

 We ended up close to Apia to stock up on beer at the supermarket. It was a chance to grab some biscuits also! I haven’t had biscuits in weeks!!! 
We had a pizza (very Samoan) and headed back to the Talufa beach fales. It is only about 30 miles but takes about an hour and a half mainly because the drivers are SO slow, but also because the roads aren’t that great, especially after a lot of rain! 

Tonight was Fia Fia night – lots of tranditional Fijian dancing and a bit of fire throwing at the end! It was great to see how the locals entertain and they even got Ryan up there too! I hid!!!

We had a visit from the Cookie Monster that night (a rat) so I didn’t get any cookies in the end. Ryan was on patrol all night with his head torch and finally found the bugger nibbling through the pack of cookies! Turns out he had been at someone else’s cookies the night before – naughty rat!

The following day was New Year’s Eve and because we had a few spaces in our car we decided to take some others to a nearby waterfall. Roger from

Switzerland had been to this one a couple of days ago and said he hung out there with friends for a while, jumping in and swimming around, though due to the recent rain we would have probably drowned if we went in so it was best not to take a dip and we just took photos instead! Because we couldn’t enjoy the waterfall we went for a short walk to the ‘Ma’ tree (a famous old tree) and sweated through the humid forest, slapping the bugs on our way and arrived at Ma! She was strange looking and not like any other tree I’d seen before so it was worth a look! 

Back in the car and worshiping the air con once again – we went back and had a quick dip.

   
 
As far as we knew nothing was planned for New Year’s Eve as it seemed that the locals celebrated the following day instead so we were unsure what the evening would bring! Beer and card games were played and dinner was eaten and the music got louder. Annoyingly it seemed that the music and the bar would be closed at 10pm but luckily because we kept dancing and drinking everything carried on and we were able to count down the new year together! It was pretty cool actually and we all went for a new year dip which was lovely and warm and we all celebrated the new year together!

What an amazing place to spend New Years ! Very happy to be in Samoa!