-My Family Trip to Samoa 2011.

Where do I begin? This trip was a TOTAL blessing for me and my family! This would have been me and my husbands first trip away with our babygirl. It was definitely one of the most memorable events of this year..

This is my babygirls first time on the plane.. she actually did quite good for a baby that loves to be active and move around all the time. She had her moments where she wanted to just get out of the plane, but she survived without distracting all other fellow passengers.. only 'JUST' .. lol








This was our first stop - Auckland. Can you explain our luggage.. This is how much luggage we went to Samoa with.. My mother said 'What ever we take to Samoa, we won't be returning with it?' I thought.. goodness we better not because it was a mission itself to transfer these bags from Domestic to International.. It was mainly full of mum's things for her family in Samoa..
We started called her 'Red Cross Foundation' because besides the massive bags - she already sent over a box that could probably fit all our us inside. lol.

We made it... 3 hours later, we were hit with the beautiful humid weather of Samoa. There was nothing like it.. the air almost tasted like coconut and flax..the environment itself felt welcoming and almost to good to be true. I was happy to be in the Motherland, especially with my mum and dad :)

We arrived at night time.. so it was time for us to put our mosquito nets up.. this is to prevent all the mosquito's and all flying and crawling insects from biting us.. this is mainly used if you are planning to stay in the villages.. so we did this every night, and thankful none of us got bitten right up to the last day...

 

'Ewwww' this was just one of the creeping crawlies I saw while in the village.. although it was common to have these crawl around, you should have been there to watch me scream like I was getting murdered. haha. definitely got a shock on my first night there.. 

This was my mother's family house - her village is Vaitele - Fou, Apia. It was beautiful.. They had 2 dogs who barked quite often and we were taught to say 'Halu' every time they would come up to us.. it was quite funny because the dogs were just as scared of us as we were of them.. haha. Well me anyway because I scared of almost everything.. lol

'Fugalei Market' this is the market right in the middle of town in Apia.. It is filled with veges,food etc.. basically all the simple necessities you need to survive in Samoa.. It still looked the same from the last time I went like 10 years ago.. 
You see a variety of people selling things in Samoa.. things of all sorts from shoes - music, there is never a dull moment in these markets..

This was where we stayed.. most of the trip. This was my husbands safe haven.. he mostly liked the trip because he got to sleep often and relax ALL DAY.. he wasn't really into site seeing like me.. haha.

This was the road in Vaitele - Fou that we would lead us to the shop down the road.. I swear we spent so much money at the shop.. buying water/ coke/ juice.. it was literally that hot we had to rehydrate ourselves constantly.. it was hilarious, the shopkeeper was probably thankful we were there to make him heaps of money.

This is my uncle Feleti with dad and hubby. Uncle feleti owned a taxi so he drove us everywhere and anywhere.. he was my cousin Laumua's husband.. he drunk after a hard day of work.. which was his release from a hard day! He was quite a champ in that department.. lol. He had 3 beautiful girls to my cousin Laumua.







'My Grandma' - she still looks the same to me the way she looked 10years ago.. she's still healthy and not at all sick. She has arthritis in her legs which prevents her from walking far.. but I'm so glad my hubby and daughter got to meet her :) 

These are my crazy nieces and babygirl in the purple not looking at all interested in taken the photo.. hehe

Left: Isis, Lusa, Daisy and Lilly.

These kids were so smart and fluent in Samoa they probably knew way more Samoan then me. 

Most of the time.. we liked to play cards with the kids.. they taught us card games and so did we. Jonate is fijian so he didnt understand what they were saying half of the time, but some how he always won whenever we played.. hehe, that annoyed the village kids. lol

This is my cousin Matini.

- In Samoa it is common of boys to prepare food this way. He was quite a pro and doing this.. it was fun watching it! 

Check out these cool buses in Samoa :) hehe.
$2 to take you around town.. fantastic, way better then catching a cab I'll say..









 Our time in Vaitele - Fou, Apia..
 

Our time in Savaii, Samoa - Dad's village

 

On our way to the boat from Apia to Savaii- 7:30am

Beautiful view on the boat.

Off the boat - Boat Sickness. hehe

Market in Savaii - wasn't much variety,but worth a look.

Dad's Village - Iva, Fusi.

Babygirl with her cousin - She looks like a local.

Daddy and his sister.

The biggest Centipede  I've ever seen.. ahhhh.

heading back to the boat..

 

 

Thanks for having us Savaii.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved the time we had in Fusi, Savaii. It was amazing. I got to meet my dad's family first hand for the first time. I got to see heaps more cousins then there are in NZ. I absolutely loved it in my dad's village, I think because there was more of my age group there so it was easy to relate. I loved being able to experience this part of Samoa - as well as adapt to how people in this village live. I'm glad we were able to see my dad's other sibling - Solema. She has gone quite old now and has amnesia so it was hard for us to communicate with her because she had forgotten who we were half the time.. but my Dad always reminded her who we were and why we were there, so it was precious. I do miss them everyday - all my cousins there, and I can't wait to see them again - God willing.

Back in Vaitele - Fou, Apia: 

Finally, my 12 days in Samoa was well worth it, I loved every minute of it. To the food, shopping and adventures I sure had the time of my life. I loved meeting my parents family and hometown, The environment was surreal, I got to experience the way Samoans live and am very thankful for what I have here in NZ. Needless to say although I know how rough it is for some there, I surprised to know that the people there survive by taking each day as it comes. The sun was beaming everyday, the atmosphere was incredible, just being able to live and breath nature was unbelievable. I'm glad I got to take my family with me as well.. I don't think we would've left if I didn't force them to go, but I'm so thankful we did.

For those thinking of traveling to Samoa in the near future, I recommend a lot of shorts/ tees/ ie lavalava's and LOTS of mosquito spray.. preferably one if alot of D.E.E.T (Doctors request) 

Cherish your time with your family also.

I'm proud to be Samoan - and I'm proud of those living in the motherland. 

It's the place to be when your looking for Relaxation. 

With Love.