Blogs from Savai'i, Samoa, Oceania

Again we sleep in, and spend the morning lounging on the beach and by the pool. I think that I could get very used to this. We chat to our lunch waiter who is a man in his early twenties named Teetee. He tells us that he has only been working at the hotel for a month, and quit his previous job as an auditor so that he could be closer to home and spend more time with his grandparents. He tells us that his parents divorced when he was an infant, and he was the youngest and only one of several siblings who “escaped” with his father from his mother’s family after the split. He says that his father soon remarried, and he was then raised by his grandparents on his father’s side. He says ... read more

An announcement comes over the PA telling us that we’re about to land. Issy says that we can’t land now because she’s just got comfortable. I tell her that I’m sure the pilot and the rest of the passengers wouldn’t mind if we did laps of Samoa for a couple of hours while she got some sleep. The airport is on the main island of Upolu, but our first stop is the larger but much less populated island of Savai’i which is an hour’s ferry ride away. It‘s 5am when we land and the ferry doesn’t leave until midday, so it seems that we have a few hours to kill. Issy spies that there’s a Sheraton resort near the ferry terminal so we decide to head there to try to get some breakfast and find somewhere ... read more

......it's goodmorning to all in Tongan, Hi guys, thanks for still have a vested interest in the little going's on the Witherspoon's little epic journey. The latest entry reaches your laptop from the bedroom of our cosy b&b in Nuku'alofa (big smoke), Tonga. Arrived here yesterday from the emerald islses of Samoa, an hours flight but much to our confusion a 24 hour jump forward through the date line (I'm a day closer to 30 in just the space of one hour!). We arrived just in time for Valentines day, a thought that only occured to oursleves during our bumpy dirt road journey to our next destination. Needless to say the formalities of cards and showering of gifts will wait to our 1st wedding anniversary (we'll be earning some money by then). Of out today exploring ... read more