Kitano Tusitala Hotel Apia

Today was an early start (6am) as we needed to catch the ferry from Mulifanua (Mooli-far-noo-ar) Wharf, just 5km east of the Faleolo International Airport, to go to the island of Savaii (Sar-vie-ee). This is the second largest island in the Samoan group of islands and a 1.5 hour trip from Upolu (oo-pol-oo). It lands at Salelologa Wharf (Sal-lee-lel-longa) on the south-eastern tip ...

... and better looked after than the houses. We saw no animals or birds at all. It was all very interesting and we both enjoyed our half day here. As we prepared top leave we were entertained by a group of Samoans playing local instruments including a young boy blowing into a large conche. Those not playing did several dances some using sticks which were lit at both ends. It was nice to be at sea again purely for the breeze.

... lap on the beach. Anyone who knows me, knows that this is a recipe for disaster. After 5 minutes of listening to water rush, I already had to go to the bathroom. It was a bit torturous to listen to water running the whole night, only to have to constantly get out of bed, walk across the sandy beach to the road to the bathrooms, then back again without getting sand into our bed. The first night was still dreamy, waking up to a ...

... after 55 mins we reached the top and what a view!! After resting we walked back down and got a cab back into town. Tuesday 22nd July today we visited the sliding rocks. very impressive we spent a while there before going back to the hostel and getting ready to fly to NZ. The airport was a night mare, check in opened a hour late, then we were meant to be flying at 9:30pm but never boarded the plane till 10:15pm. We eventually took off at 11pm. NZ here we come!

... kirjeldab seda kui midrange taseme hotelli, aga ütleme nii, et kesktasemest oli asi siiski üsna kaugel. Toad olid väga tagasihoidlikud ja keset tuba marssisid uhkelt sipelgad oma trajektoori pidi. Kuna me olime parasjagu väsinud, ei teinud me sellest liigset numbrit, aga hommikul otsustasime, et esialgu plaanitud 2 ööd me seal kindlasti ei veeda ning asusime teele U'polu saart avastama. Rentisime jälle auto - sedakorda juba kohe nelivedu dziibi, kuna hoiatati mägede ...

... so we intended to find a hostel to stay in. When looking on the internet weeks ago, I realized that I had built up a lot of hotel stay points with the Hilton chain for work travel and so I looked to see if I could redeem them here. There was one hotel owned by Hilton and so we booked a night there. We figured we'd have one night of luxury before we returned to normal (although Uncle Phillip's house is quite nice; more on that later). Well, it turned out that ...

... forever! I arrived in Surfer's Paradise ecstatic to see and eat at a McDonalds. I ended up eating McDonalds twice in an eight hour period. It was fantastic! I think my love for McDonalds grew with abstenance. While in Surfer's I stayed with my friend Chelsey's ex-boyfriend. He runs pub crawls in Surfer's and took me out both nights. It is awfully hard to explain how I felt when I arrived in Surfer's. I spent two months in ...

... out lasted all the kids (or the parents) and the park went really quiet. We took advantage of this and had a hyper couple of hours on the slides. As Hev was getting out of her tube after one ride she noticed Lynn struggling in her tube. The tube had a big hole for your bum and a small hole for your feet. As Lynn went to get out through the smaller hole (you can probably guess what happened) she got stuck! Hev found it highly amusing along with ...

... koala. We went out for dinner with Scottie's mate, Wayne, and his wife Vens, who live in Brisbane. It was nice to see them again, we also met up with them when we were in Hong Kong. We also spent a day a Movie World which is a big theme park. They had some really cool rides. The best one was a roller coaster called Superman which did 0-100km/h in 2 seconds! We went on it about 5 times!

... in the bars of Airlie Beach the night before, we congregated bright-eyed and furry-mouthed at Abel Point Marina to meet our vessel, a purpose-built catamaran designed for sailing the Whitsundays and scuba diving on the reef. After a few quick introductions with the watery seadogs who's company we'd be keeping over the next three days, we were away, and it wasn't long before the heady cocktail of the previous night's excesses and life on the open waves began to ...