So we woke up to a brand new year, 2016 had come and we’d been up late, spending midnight in the bath like ocean.

I had to somehow rouse Evie from her slumber at 7:30am after just a few hours sleep. She wasn’t impressed at my references to the movie ‘Frozen’ at this time of day. That is until I told her that we were going on an adventure and I had 2 tickets to American Samoa, flying out this morning! 

This got her eyes open and she was soon out of bed packing an overnight bag. The purpose of going to American Samoa was to head over the international date line and go back in time to last year for a second New Year’s Eve.

 

 
Very confusing but the 2 neighbouring island nations are oddly 25 hours apart. So our flight would depart Western Samoa at noon on the 1st January and land 30 minutes later in American Samoa at 11:30am on the 31st December.

 

 
We both very excitedly drove the bumpy, hilly roads toward the small airstrip in Apia. We arrived with plenty of time to spare so went for a quick coffee. There wasn’t any kind of security and passengers were pretty much put on to aircraft depending on who turned up earliest, as a result we were going on an earlier flight. 

 

 
The 19 seater DCH3-600 Twin Otter arrived seemingly straight from 1974 when it was built. We were positioned in the first row, legs almost inside the open cockpit.

 

 
Also with the absence of air conditioning, within a couple of minutes, the aircraft had turned into a flying sauna. That plus the nervous sweats setting in! After a brief inaudible intro from the flight deck, we were lined up in the rather short runway. No need for worry though as this beast took off in no time, as you left your stomach back at ground level.

We climbed very quickly and battled through the wind before making a 90 degree turn on our way to Pago Pago just 100km away. The short flight was a great experience, beautiful views of both islands and the reefs surrounding them and smooth sailing almost all the way, aside from the slightly sideways landing into a rainstorm. Which we later learned to be the tail end of Cyclone Ula! Glad we haven’t had access to the weather!!! 

The flight left you feeling like you’d left a thrill ride rather than an aeroplane and we were both grinning ear to ear as a result. From the airport we took a free shuttle to a resort in the centre of town. 
Pago Pago is a natural harbour with huge sea cliffs covered in palm trees and other huge trees, with a few waterfalls dotted around. The restaurant we went to was very nice, right on the seafront overlooking turquoise waters. A turtle kept popping it’s head up just a few feet away from us too, everything was going perfectly! 

We needed to get to our resort, Tisa’s Barefoot bar and Lodge. Just a few miles away, so we took a local bus. The buses are unique in American Samoa, brightly coloured, small pick up trucks with a converted seating area on the back for about 25 people. Pretty soon however, Evie was on my lap as the bus was at about double capacity. Also the sound systems on the buses are deafening and we had the likes of Abba and Whitney Houston blaring all the way.

We arrived and introduced ourselves to Tisa (the owner) and her boyfriend Candyman. They were both very nice, but weren’t expecting us to arrive because of the cyclone that had narrowly missed Samoa and the fact we were flying over in a tin shed with wings! No problems though, we had a beer overlooking the beach whilst Candyman prepared our room. 

I left Evie playing with the cats, known as Cat 1, 2 & 3, whilst I went off to prepare my surprise. I asked Candyman if he had some Champagne that I could put on ice. It turned out that he had a dusty old bottle on the shelf, he had no idea of the age but said I could have it for $5, so I thought, what the heck, she’s worth it.

The room was great, a simple beach fale, raised 12 feet from the beach, with 3 woven walls, a high ceiling and one open end with a large balcony overlooking the amazing sea views. We also had a hot outdoor shower around the corner, again with 3 walls and one open end overlooking that view. 

 

 
We were pretty sleepy at around 5pm so we thought it would be good to have a cat nap before our second New Year’s Eve party. I lay down and Evie disappeared to the loo, after 10 minutes though, I started to worry that she may have been eaten by one of the local giant coconut crabs. I went out to find her chatting away to Tisa and Candyman and had made arrangements to go out on the town with them for the night. My plans were slipping away.

Not to appear odd, I decided to join them and pretty soon we were drinking Tequila with Cointreau, yum but way too strong for what I had planned. After a little while I asked Evie to take a walk on the beach with me to wake us up, seeing as the cat nap did not materialise. 

Again she disappeared to the loo, but this time, 10 minutes later, I found her on FaceTime with Sue in California. ‘Come on’ I thought, the light was slowly disappearing, thankfully it’s midsummer though and dinner was being prepared, my opportunity was fading away.
I politely joined Evie chatting away to Sue, which was lovely by the way Sue and no hard feelings toward you, but I was getting twitchy and nervous.

I had already had a bout of nerves the night before, when I had to take my last chance to call Evie’s dad to ask his permission, a bit of a surprising phone call as you walk down Lymington high street apparently. Thankfully I had his approval so there was only one thing left to do.
I eventually managed to get the phone out of Evie’s hands and took her on our beach walk. We were guided by the local dog all the way to the end of the beach, I wasted time playing on a swing, plucking up the courage and trying not to appear nervous in any way. My heart was pounding though and we were halfway back when I had to seize the moment. 
I managed to trick Evie into posing for a photo, I set the camera up on a tree and got into the photo. We had a big hug whilst I fumbled around in my pocket for the ring and eventually got down on one knee. 

I asked her to marry me and she asked me if I was being serious!? This was out of shock I’m told and after I jammed the slightly small ring on her finger I reminded her that she hadn’t answered me yet, of course, she said yes! Wooooooohoooooooo!!!!!!!!!
All the nerves were gone and for a long time we both were away with the fairies. Holding onto each other for what could have been an eternity. We went back to Tisa’s and had a few more minutes together before our dinner of fresh tuna and lobster was ready. We were congratulated by Tisa and Candyman who joined us for dinner. Evie was very quiet and had lost her appetite as I chatted about crabs and tsunamis. I had left her in fairyland apparently. 

Dinner was delicious but we were both ready to be alone. We politely declined the offer of clubbing in Pago Pago with our hosts who were very understanding and left us in charge of their resort, with free roam of the bar. 

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We spent a few hours alone on our balcony, drinking our dusty bottle of fizz, playing a few games of cards, staring at the sea and listening to Justin Bieber (for all you fellow Beliebers out there) 

We were very lucky to have excellent wi-fi freely available to us, so after we had finished calling each other ‘fiancé’ a thousand times, it was time to call our family’s to tell them the good news. Everyone was so happy for us, some surprised, some emotional, others who were in on my plan, just very happy it went so well. It was a very special moment to share with our family and friends, we’d recommend it to anyone.  

 
Next was declaring it to the world via Facebook! Cue many more congratulations from around the world. After being so tired earlier in the day, we ended up talking to friends and family dotted around the globe until after 2am, almost missing our second New Year’s Eve, the last one in the world by the way! 

We awoke the next day, both very happy and in love. A breakfast of organic home grown food courtesy of Candyman went down very well, vegetable omelette, mango pieces and grilled upside down orange bananas (the next superfood) washed down with the local brew Koko Samoa (100% cacao with honey and coconut cream) 

Evie finished making phone calls to the friends she’d missed whilst I had a tour of the plantation. We then were driven back to town, me wearing my new souvenir vest from Tisa’s bar, and Evie wearing a shiny ring.  

 Being New Year’s Day again, everything was closed and it was pouring with rain. We managed to get a bus to the airport early and as a result, were put on a much earlier flight as there were plenty of spare seats. This flight was a bit bumpier, only flying at 1500 feet under the clouds and rainstorm above us. Nothing could dampen our spirits though and we were soon back on terra-firma after an interesting landing.

The second 31st December 2015 was the best day of my life, I asked the girl of my dreams to spend the rest of her life with me and she said yes. I will never forget that moment and will be sure to return one day, maybe with a couple of mini Ryan & Evie’s in tow!? Watch this space…..