Blogs from Samoa, Oceania - page 10

......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

Papeete, Tahiti We spent a pleasant day in Tahiti visiting James Norman Hall’s 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 that not only was he a writer, but also quite an army pilot, serving in three armies - French, Spanish, and American (with Eddie Rickenbacker). There is a room full of medals and military memorabilia. His son was famous in his own right as a cinematographer, winning Oscars for such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Road to Perdition. James Hall knew Zane Grey, ... read more

13.11.07 Tine woke up reasonably early, wonderfully re-freshened. We succeeded in cooling our room to a comfortable temperature after we arrived and then we fell a sleep immediately. But - one thing is a cooled room another is reality when you step out into the tropical heat and then in the rainy season. You could cut through the air, it was so humid. Tine had a look around. Our room was just next to the pool area and the Old Fale restaurant. Very nicely made with lots of palm trees and blooming trees and bushes. A Fale is the name of the traditional Samoan ‘house’. It is a platform raised above the ground, often just with poles carrying the roof and open to all sides. The roof is traditionally made of weaved coco palm leaves. They ... read more

This weekend I went to Ma'asina, a village in Fagaloa Bay, which is absolutely beautiful. There are no hotels or anything, no restaurants, just hospitable people. I love going there. When I go, I take oso, a small gift of some sort of food, usually peanut butter, cookies or lollies, chips, some kind of fruit that's easier to get in town like pineapple, Milo (kind of like ovaltine, but tastes better), and I give it to my family that I stay with as soon as I get there. It's best if I do it right away, and give it to the oldest member of the family, who in my family is a woman who just celebrated her 80th birthday. Once I'm there, then I can do what the family is doing. One time when I came, ... read more

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 Samoan Prayer House. I was intrigued. I followed the signs up a hill, past a church youth practice, some faleoloa, and lots of Samoans confused about what a palagi would be doing by herself on a Sunday in the rain, I found the most beautiful building I have ever seen in Samoa. Not to say that a fale ... read more