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Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop

a travel blog by chrischarly

After 6 months in the Western world, it is time to put back on our backpacks, pack away the rain coats and hit the Pacific!
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Off to beautiful Savai'i

Mulifanua, Samoa


Our new ride
Alarm went off at 5:30am today to head to Savaii the other large Island here in Samoa. So after packing we hung up our wet clothes we had washed yesterday that had failed to dry completely over the backs of the seats in our car and drove to the Ferry terminal in Mulifan, 1 hour away.

Day fales
It was nice to be up bright and early so we could make the most of our day and make it to Savaii at a reasonable hour to have a look around before finding somewhere to stay.

Coastal road
So after a quick snack for breakfast we drove straight onto the Ferry and found some seats upstairs. The Ferry journey was comfortable and not too long, just 1 hour and as soon as we arrived in Savaii the sun was there to meet us and we had a nice slow drive to Lano as the speed

Chris and Neil
limit is just 40kmph but at least it meant we could enjoy the views along the way. We chose to stay in Lauiula Beach Fales as it had a nice open restaurant with a lot of breeze going through and also had the traditional Samoan Fales to sleep in.

View from our fale
These are all open with shutters all around that you can either leave up or down when you are sleeping and when open give fantastic views of the sea, beach and Sunrise in the morning.

Neil
But as they are so open, security of any valuables is an obvious issue but luckily we had our car that we could lock anything

Big bowl of 'ava for the 3 of us
valuable up in. So after a tasty Chicken curry for lunch the 3 of us all went for a snorkel for an hour or so before having a relaxing afternoon and evening. After dinner we decided to buy some ‘ava which is the same as kava just spelt differently and as there were other people staying here as well we chose to get 2 bags so we could share it around. But typically as we had gotten so much the others didn’t like it so we had a huge bowl all to ourselves which was a struggle to drink and kept all of us up at night needing to use the toilet. A good night though.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 17, 2012 from Mulifanua, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Flat battery...

Lano, Samoa


Our fale
After watching an amazing sunrise this morning Chris and I dozed for a little while before waking up and seeing the sun shining as it has done every day since we have been in Samoa so far so we had an awesome day just relaxing, reading books and going in and out of the water snorkelling. Neil unfortunately left his clothes out on the line to dry last night, as did the rest of us but when he came to get ready he noticed that they were nowhere to be found.

Inside our fale
So annoyingly after searching everywhere they had obviously vanished, but we did find a mysterious pair of shorts outside his fale that didn’t belong to anyone staying here, so it seems that someone who must’ve walked by late at night took a liking to his shorts and decided to swap them for his or her own. Irritating, but kinda funny. Then when it got to lunch time we decided to go out and find somewhere to eat something as our place wasn’t serving lunch today and they had run out of supplies.

Explaining the ingredients and how to make
So got in the car to realise that we had a flat battery. Great. We have only had it one day, so Chris called up Avis and they remarkably sent someone straight out to buy a new car battery and sent him on the 4pm ferry to come over and change it for us. Pretty good service really, but it did mean that our car wasn’t fixed until 6pm and then it was pointless going out and doing something, but still, a good excuse to enjoy the sunshine.

Richard demonstrating the umu
So, when dinner did arrive at 7:30pm we were all famished, but at least it was delicious as we had ‘umu’ but instead of being cooked underground as the Fijians and Tongans do, it is instead cooked above ground cooking the same things though, just using slightly different methods. Chris and Neil went and watched the preparations as Neil had never seen it being made before whilst I enjoyed some more quiet time reading my book. The evening was a quiet one again as nothing much seems to happen in the evenings so we stayed up chatting for a few hours before grabbing an early night.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 18, 2012 from Lano, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Lava fields and a protected Virgin's Grave

Saleaula, Samoa


Virgin's grave the lava missed completely
Got up this morning, chilled for a little while before checking out of Lauiula Beach Fales and headed North for a little while to go and see

Old church destroyed by the lava
some lava fields in Saleaula, which were really impressive that happened between 1905-1911 which destroyed 2 churches and impressively missed a ‘Virgin’s Grave’, the lava spitting in half completely avoiding covering her grave.

Corrugated iron melted by lava
There was a couple staying at Lauiula with us who we made friends with and as they didn’t have a car and wanted to go and stay at the same place as us we all squeezed together

Lava fields
in the car and headed out together which helped our negotiation skills when trying to find some accommodation after seeing the lava fields as there were now 5 of us and it isn’t quite the high season yet.

Chris driving through a restaurant
After deliberating over lunch between the 5 neighbouring fale accommodation we finally made a group decision to stay at ‘Vacations’ which although was the most expensive was clearly the nicest.

Our little mozzie-eating friend
Then, for the rest of the day we all did what we know best… relaxing, which a bit of snorkelling added into the mix. Then, later after we had all showered and were enjoying the gorgeous sunset Chris spotted a turtle coming up for air just past the shallows, then after seeing

Awesome beach
it in the same place for a second time decided to grab his mask and see if he could see it and he luckily got the chance to swim alongside it for a while before coming back out and enjoying gloating to the

Sunset
other guests who have been staying here for a week desperate to see a turtle themselves but not being able to. At 6:30pm dinner was served which was some Chicken and mashed potatoes and then the bar closed shortly afterwards so the 5 of us sat and chatted for a couple of our before Chris, Neil and I retired to bed to all snuggle up and watch a film.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 19, 2012 from Saleaula, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Sunday= day of rest

Manase, Samoa


Had a nice little lie-in this morning before getting up and eating some tasty fruit for breakfast. Then Chris and Neil went out for some early-morning snorkelling but the current was so strong they soon returned having gotten stuck in some places as the current just wanted to take them far out to sea, so we decided before going out again we would wait for higher tide when it wouldn’t be as strong, which it wasn’t but still a good work-out swimming session.


As it was a Sunday we had umu for lunch; very tasty and lots of nice selection to choose from. Samoa is similar to Fiji and Tonga in the way that everything virtually stops on a Sunday so most if not all shops are closed and the people just relax the whole day, so we did pretty much the same.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 20, 2012 from Manase, Samoa
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Mt. Matavanu Crater

Manase, Samoa


Pidgin English
Checked out this morning and drove to see Mt. Matavanu Crater which is a Volcano responsible for the devastation visited upon North Eastern Savaii a century ago.

Warning
We were greeted by the famous Gr8TRMan (Crater man) and drove on a rugged 4WD track and took a short hike to the top to take in some impressive views and read some signs written by the Crater man himself in his funny Pidgin English.

Neil
We then continued on to find somewhere to stay for night after our first choice was fully booked and stumbled across a deserted amazing beach with an old resort on.

View from the crater
Luckily the family were still taking customers but due to the reputation this part of the Island has for car break-ins we had the whole place to ourselves which made it simply paradise!

Old church affected by tsunami
After we had settled in, the sea soon started calling us so we grabbed our snorkels and went for a swim.

Sunset
It was in fact the best snorkelling we have seen so far in Samoa and we saw a big puffer fish and amazingly a HUGE shark!

Nice sunset
It was by far the biggest Chris and I had ever seen and we would like to think it was merely a harmless(ish) black tipped reef shark, but by judging the size and shape of it (it had a huge belly and a few black stripes down the side) I’m not so sure, so we got out quite quickly just in case!





View from Neil's fale

Our beach fales

We then had a couple of drinks and some tasty dinner and relaxed watching the stars.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 21, 2012 from Manase, Samoa
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Awesome Blowholes

Manase, Samoa


A natural pool

Lovely day


Blowholes

Coconut man

Reluctantly we left our lovely beach and drove along the south coast to check out some other places. But unfortunately the place where we wanted to stay was closed due to a private function so we continued on and went to see some blowholes which were in fact amazing.


Blowholes

Blowholes


Admiring the blowholes

Huge blowholes

Chris and I weren’t that bothered to go out and see them as previous ones we’ve seen were pretty disappointing, but as Neil was keen we both tagged along and I’m glad we did. Then after watching a guy throw some coconuts inside the blowholes we drove further on and ended up in the main town by the wharf and found a nice resort and after some super bargaining by Chris we managed to get a bargain room for 100 tala, 50 tala cheaper than the original price.


Our fale

We then chilled for a while, went to buy some tickets for the Ferry tomorrow and then went for a swim in the natural fresh water pool before having dinner and an early night.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 22, 2012 from Manase, Samoa
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Pulemelei Mound

Manase, Samoa


Banana flower
We checked out this morning and left after a nice breakfast.

Check out how long the grass is!
The useless staff at the hotel managed to get our bill wrong and ended up not charging us for half our food, their loss! We then drove a little way to find the walk to the Pulemelei mound. After taking LP direction we arrived at a ford that we didn’t want to risk crossing so went around to the village to ask some locals for assistance.

Random bit of tarmacked road
They setup a guide and Neil and Chris went off for the walk, which was pretty tough so I was glad I didn’t go, instead staying behind keeping an eye on our car. The boys took lots of nice pictures though, and their guide was really nice and explained to them some of the history of this strange mound in his very basic English.

Rock hopping
He climbed for coconuts on the way back so Neil could watch with admiration as he’d never seen it done before. The walk had taken longer than planned, so we had to rush to get fuel and a quick bite before getting on the ferry. The ferry itself was a rough trip and we were pleased to get off the other end.

Chris having a little break
Once back on Upolu Island we met a Kiwi couple we had met at Lanu, and offered them a ride to their accommodation as we were going past it. On our drive the weather got worse and worse with torrential rain. After dropping off the Kiwis and stopping for a drink with them, we got on our way to find a beach fale in this horrible weather. A little way on Chris said he was feeling unwell, and offered an alternate plan to detour across the cross island road to Apia for a guaranteed good room out of the weather.

Neil and the boy's guide
We were pretty glad we agreed, as Chris got worse, and Neil did a great job driving in the dark rainy conditions.

We fed the hungry dogs whilst waiting for ferry
As we entered Apia, Chris told Neil to stop and got out of his system whatever it was that upset it, which we suspect it was the fried chicken for lunch. We got back to our original accommodation and got Chris rested up, while Neil and I went out and grabbed a take-away pizza. Later that night I got struck by the same as Chris only as it was later in the day and not so immediate I was up all night, only Neil was saved!

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 23, 2012 from Manase, Samoa
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Sick sick sick

Manase, Samoa


Neil

Inviting bed

Chris was feeling much better in the morning, but I was not, so after a lazy morning for all I let the guys go out and explore. They went out for a nice breakfast then up to the Robert Louis Stevenson House/museum before returning to check on me.


Neil about to have a nap

Table in the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum


Old photo in Robert Louis Stevenson Museum
I was still feeling rough so expedition 2 was to the point, and then to ‘Cocks on the Rocks’ for a few beers and pool, before returning to check on me again. The last expedition they went to McDonald’s and then the cinema to watch a blokey movie. Chris returned with acid reflux so took a few pills and had a pretty uncomfortable night, think the sickness followed by a day out eating badly may be the cause!

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 24, 2012 from Manase, Samoa
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Keeping Neil entertained in bad weather

Manase, Samoa


Lots of rain
Chris was feeling rough after a bad night, but I was feeling a bit better, so I swapped roles with Chris in entertaining Neil and we decided to go out on a mission.

Waterfall
Although the weather in Apia was not great, we had high hopes that it would be fine the other side of the Island, so we chose to take the cross-country route through the centre of the Island to the south coast and then drive up and round to the east. But the weather only worsened the further from Apia we went.

Neil checking out depth of ford #2
By the time we had reached the bottom of the Island Neil could barely see out of the windscreen so we seeked some brief shelter at a nearby resort.

Would be fantastic views if no clouds
We both felt very under-dressed as this was an obvious honeymooners retreat and we sat in the restaurant dripping wet in our optimistic beach wear receiving unfriendly looks from the staff as we chose to only have a drink and nothing to eat. As soon as we downed our smoothies, we drove quickly away faced once again with the rain.

The ford we didn't pass through
But as it had rained so hard, we were faced with a deep ford and feeling brave decided to chance it and luckily as we had quite good clearance managed to drive straight through, but just a few kms down the road we were met by another, this time fast-flowing which we just made through.

Choppy sea
Thinking we had finally crossed through the worst of the roads, we saw one more and there was no way we could risk driving through as it was really wide, even more fast-flowing and this time ended up in the sea, so we sadly turned back around and drove back to Chris for a relaxing evening and a quick bite to eat at a Chinese which unfortunately made Chris feel even worse even though he just ate clear soup.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 25, 2012 from Manase, Samoa
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A nice tasty treat of a meal

Manase, Samoa


Neil cooling off

The cave pool


Fish in the cave pool
It’s Neil’s last day today and the first thing Neil and I did was to drive to the doctors with Chris who was still feeling unwell after a rough night, so after getting him some strong painkillers we tucked Chris back into bed and drove into town to buy him some bananas and do a little bit of souvenir shopping for Neil before returning a couple of hours later still to an exhausted Chris, who sent us back out again so he could get some more rest.


Chris

Neil


Us
So, as the sun was attempting to shine through the thick clouds we headed back towards the east coast and went to a cave pool. It was really nice and full of fish so we had a very cold yet refreshing swim in there for half an hour before we got back out and returned once again back to Apia. Chris was feeling a lot better so we all got dressed up and went out to Paddles restaurant for a celebratory last meal with Neil.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 26, 2012 from Manase, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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