http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Oceania , Samoa , Upolu , Apia en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:07:49 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:07:49 UTC Itrsquos mango season now in Samoa and all over Apia you can see trees heavy with the fruit and hundreds of overripe ones litter the ground everywhere. The smell of mangoes to me means Christmas and it certainly feels like all my Christmases have come at once with this many mangoes available. I could eat mangoes all day every day which is pretty much what Irsquove been doing. Their juic http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-351151.html Friday 19th October 2007 Friday 26th October 2007Toni GreenhillBlair Newton http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-341771.html Die Zeit fliegtViel gibt es nicht zu erzhlen. Das Paradies ist nicht sehr vielseitig. Nachdem ich die erste Insel erkundet hatte bin mit der Fhre zur anderen Insel gefahren. Nach einer Stunde war ich dann auf Savaii. Der erste Eindruch war dass es hier noch ruhiger ist als auf Upolu. Im Norden der Insel habe ich mich in eine Fale eingebucht und habe von dort aus die Insel erkundet. Sehr schn http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-316583.html Feels like a long time since the last blog probably because it is...just been to lazy to do any major updating and the lack of fast internet doesn't help either.Most importantly the world trip has continued after the extended break in Australia I finally made it to Fiji and Samoa and there's been some important stuff happening for me personally. Where to start Fiji was pretty lovely we had http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-314515.html sorry forgot to send. whoopswe depart once again. tomorrow morning we sail to vanuatu... should be a 78 day journey. wish i had more time for the internet blogging and catching up with everyone but the computer access seems to be on 'island time' see fanning island and i could very well spend days on it if i really wanted too... another time. i hope all is well and good with everyone. and http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-311984.html enjoy the pictures... http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-311895.html It's been the better part of three weeks now since I left and had internet access... where do I begin Currently I am in Samoa home of the Samoan land of an island. I am enjoying a steady boat running water showers and environmental stimulation. No wait a minute. Let me backup... Journal entry July 26th DEPARTURE we set sail july 24th 830am from the hawaiian yacht club. after the s http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-311498.html SamoaAus den paar Stunden ist dann nocheinml drei Nchte geworden. Ich hatte mich an dem Tag an dem ich fliegen sollte zum Flughafen begeben. Dort angekommen habe ich auf der Anzeigetafel meinen Flug gesucht und nicht gefunden. Als ich dann in meinen Unterlagen nachgeschaut habe hat mich der Schlag getroffen ich hatte meinen Flug verpasst. Nach dem der erste Schock vorbei war habe ich bei der http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-308499.html It's one of those traumatic childhood stories. We all have one. Moonlit graveyards sock eating monsters under the bed the Boogy Man fluffy bunny rabbits lumpy toads there is a spinetingling nemesis out there for everyone. Some are a bit more understandable than others such as my strapping 6 foot 3 Scottish friend who has an apprehension towards turkeys of the gobble gobble variety not http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-303851.html Sorry for the long wait between posts. We were on an island in Samoa with only ltgulpgt dial up. Samoa is like Hawaii but there's no dry side of the islands only green everywhere with lots of waterfalls. The villages have nicely painted houses and fales in all shades of the rainbow. The grass is kept trimmed and bordered by decorative plants and flowers. There's very little trash around http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-302972.html Slumbering bedding down bunking catnapping zoning out catching forty winks and hitting the hay. Normal people call it sleeping a state of inactivity or unconsciousness. Somewhere between the hours of 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. individuals all over the world are sleeping and recharging their bodies and restless minds. Lucky them. I haven't completely slept through a night in several months for we http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-291048.html Hello Julia here and a very belated Happy New Year to allI recently joined a local soccer team having been invited by a colleague who plays with a bunch of his former workmates from a previous job. Itrsquos 11 a side with a minimum of five girls on field at any time and we get to play on the fields from the South Pacific Games so the set up is pretty good. Irsquom the only palagi fore http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-245792.html Hi Guys......thanks for still being this interested. Since our last entry we have been on our whale watching tour. What a waste of money that was. It was quite possibly the worst boat trip ever due to the waves being at least 10ft high no joke There were so many people being sick that this one dork passed out and the US coast guard and paramedics had to come and meet us. Ayyy stupid dork meant http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-241603.html Apia Samoa January 26 2008 we docked in Apia the capital of Samoa and the only place you can really call a city. This is the first port since Tahiti that we were able to dock and didnrsquot have to tender in. It is warm but raining and showing no signs of letting up so I donrsquot know if I will go ashore or not. Wersquove been so luck so far with such good weather that I guess wersqu http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-239762.html Papeete Tahiti We spent a pleasant day in Tahiti visiting James Norman Hallrsquos home Point Venus which is the site where Capt. Cook recorded the passage of Venus across the face of the sun in 1769 a local market and later watched people congregating near the ship where vendors set up stands selling all kinds of food. James Norman Hall wrote the Mutiny on the Bounty series. We learned th http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-239756.html This was my first trip to Samoa and I was determined to make the most of it. I was rapidly realising that even though I lived in the Pacific visiting the many hundreds of islands in it within the next year was going to be tricky so every opportunity had to be grabbed by the horns so to speak. Samoa for me conjured up images of fierce warriors tribal tattoos and more recently a pretty decent http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-234685.html With your skulls blingYou make everythinghellipgroovyMeet our new 1993 ldquoSuzuki Sidekickrdquo a belittling model name for a car I know but this badass is no shrinking violet. We now cruise the streets of Apia with ferocious looking skulls lining both doors ldquoWild Thangrdquo plastered down the sides and the piece de resistance a diamantestudded dollar sign on the fro http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-211913.html I think it is going to rain again.The rainy season seems to have started as soon as September finished. Last Sunday as I started walking home after to'ona'i the reason I don't miss Thanksgiving every Sunday is a Thanksgiving in Samoa I am going to get so fat the sky ripped its belly open and I was immediately soaked. I decided to walk the rest of the way home. On my way I saw a sign for Samo http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-210742.html On Tuesday I decided to go buy a mango. They are incredible and they are just coming into season. So I went to the market. Samoa is riddled with tiny stores faleoloa that sell snacks like Twisties comparable to cheese puffs or loaves of fresh white bread or sugar tea matches tuna crackers oil onions ice cakes and any number of things differing greatly from store to store of course b http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-208403.html As I walk to school in the morning I pass a house whose gardener my roommate and I affectionately call the bean man. This tiny wiry old man gives us long beans pi u'umi or tomatoes or cucumbers because he says there's no one to look after you. He talks to his plants and he yells at them if they aren't giving flowers or fruit. I asked him about it one day and he said oh that's how you g http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-206235.html I came to Samoa in October 2006 to work as a music teacher and Peace Corps volunteer. They gave me a Samoan name Moli. It means orange. Samoa is an amazing country without hunger or homeless that takes great pride in its culture. In my classes I've had the opportunity to ask my students what they think the most important thing about being Samoan is and I've had answers that range from God to http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-205582.html Julia here thought I'd give you the rundown on my work. The office is a bit ramshackle the roof leaks the floor is wonky and it hasnrsquot been renovated since it was built a good forty years ago at least but I have plenty of daylight streaming in and behind me through the window I can see away to the mountains. Although I'll be playing musical desks a bit for the next couple of months. T http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-185188.html So far so good with work for both me and Julia but we might as well write about that later when we know a bit more about what wersquore actually doing here so for now Irsquoll tell you about home sweet home. Wersquove moved into an old 2storey German colonial house which has been recently extended and redone to make four 2bd units. Wersquove got one of the top ones that overlooks a l http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-179884.html After doing our best headless chicken impersonations and trying to madly catch up with everyone and get organised over the last couple of weeks Ed and I finally scraped through checkin without having to pay for our ridiculously overweight bags and collapsed in a heap on the plane. Five hours later we stumbled off at the other end blearyeyed at 1am the morning before we had actually left alth http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-174370.html well i flew out of Auckland tea time on a thursday and landed thursday morning strange thing this date line business. spent a day around Apia then headed out to Return to Paradise beachnamed after a Cary Grant film it was beautiful and i got chatting to two Kiwi Samoans who gave me beer food and Sprite. top blokes stayed for a couple of nights above Apia in Cloud 9 eco lodge. absolutely http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-161167.html SAMOA Apia After 10 days Tonga we arrived in Samoa. The first day we spent in Apia de capital beautifully located at a bay. Here you can make a walk along the bay visit the Robert Louis Stevenson museum and there is even real good snorkeling Willem en ik mochten allebei een Pacific eilandje uitkiezen. Willem koos Tonga en ik wilde heel graag naar Samoa vanwege margaret mead de grootmoe http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-153295.html Zo eindelijk de tijd en de rust gevonden om weer een blog te schrijvenNa ons bezoek aan de gletsjers op het Zuidereiland is de reis druk geweest en de internet voorzieningen die er wel steeds zijn zijn zo druk bezet dat schrijven er niet van gekomen is.Van Franz Josef Glacier zijn we op doorreis naar Abel Tasman National Park gestopt in Punakaiki. Hier de site bezocht met de blowholes en de http://www.travelblog.org//Oceania/Samoa/Upolu/Apia/blog-142572.html