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WER'E HOME NOW!!!!

We are home now in Nelson New Zealand!! But it wont stop here! Thanks to all those who came to the airport!! It was mighty great to see you all!! We'll still be updating this Blog with post Samoa rambles and ponders........cheers and God Bless!

Last Entry in Samoa

We'll miss the FRESH fruit!!
Donating school books to luatuanu'u Primary school

We got to have my mothers ?? birthday here!
Creepy crawlies

Happy wife ;-)
Wonderful tasting.......Sasalapa Palagi. Looks can be decieving.
Beautiful sun sets
Lovely friendly children
Meeting and making new friends............We will be Back!!

This will probably be our last blog entry before we head home, with just over a week to go, time will race by. We have to be out of the house by Friday, so we are busy packing and shopping!! We are heading to the village for a night then to Lalomanu for the weekend. Everyone is looking forward to getting home, I think we have had sufficient time in each others company and it is time to get back to school routine for all! Although we are leaving behind the white sandy beaches, the tropical fruits, the coconut palms, the dogs & puppies, the roosters, the church bells at 5.00am, Plantation House, the creepy crawlies, along with family and friends. Stoke, Nelson sounds really inviting even if it is still a bit cold! I am sure the Grey family will be back in Samoa sometime in the future. I just have the mission of getting us packed back into 5 suitcases that weigh less than 20 kgs each. Emile has the task of packing the bikes up.
For those of you that have missed us SO much and couldn’t bear another day without the Grey’s!! We are due to arrive home on Air New Zealand flight NZ8367 at 4.50pm on Thursday the 9th October after a very long day, as we need to be at the airport here at 4.45am in the morning. Home, Yee-ha!! At least we don’t have to get adjusted to a time change as well, due to daylight saving we are the same time now.
We are looking forward to seeing everyone on our return. Thanks to all those who have kept in touch and have taken an interest in the activities of the Grey’s by checking out the blog. It has been a fantastic time even though it has had its challenges we have achieved our goals of the girls learning the language and more about the culture. The memories should last a lifetime even for the youngest members of the family, or the 14GBs of photos burnt to disc today should help them to remember!!!
See you all soon!
Elizabeth, Emile and Girls

Not long to go now!

Rolling over block
Inside the shop....one corner
Some of the blocks used to print with.

Hi to all those faithful blog watches and apologies for the lack of new information!! It is not that we haven’t been doing anything of interest but guess we are on wind down to coming home and will need to have something to talk about when we get home! No we have just been slack, Sorry.
We are over the car accident and after making the 2nd page of the local paper almost a full page article the insurance company rang within hours and wanted to right the car off and settle. That was very helpful for us as we at least have some extra money to get a rental when we need it. Amazing what a little publicity can do!! We also featured in the paper the following day having presented a suitcase of school journals to Lautanu’u Primary school along with the Perham-Roselli family. It was a great visit out to the school. The staff and children really appreciated getting the extra resources.
We had a great 2nd trip back to Savaii for Leilani’s birthday but most of that will have to wait till we get back home to tell the stories. She won’t forget her 8th birthday in a hurry.
Emile’s Mum has arrived in Samoa for the next couple of weeks, so it will be nice to have time with her and for the children to have time with their Nana Teresa.
I am still enjoying my time at Plantation House, we had a great visit to learn the fabric printing and Logo posed nicely for the photo. Leilani now has the lavalava to take home as one of her birthday present. Today for Haute Tea (fancy afternoon tea) I served Billy Connelly’s wife, oh to be up with the celebrates, she offered me a sizeable tip, but I refused to take it!! Marita has invited the whole family to Haute Tea next week so the girls are really looking forward to that, as they have sampled Marita’s wonderful cooking on a number of occasions. I will miss my involvement with Plantation House it has been very interesting. The whole family has benefitted from our involvement even the girls have received an income from selling bracelets to Marita. Emile has been making cards for her too.
We had a wonderful weekend away last week to Sunset View Fales on Manono Island, which is exactly as the brochure say’s, a tranquil tropical island with a typical village lifestyle. We walked around the island as there are no roads and no dogs which was a nice change. We saw an umu demonstration so I can stop nagging my husband to do one for us at the village. We watched the men prepare the palusami (coconut cream and young taro leaves) which is cooked in the umu. We went out on the boat to snorkel which was great. The sunset and the full moon kept my husband clicking on the camera all night long but he has some great shoots.
We have a couple more things on our list to achieve before we head home in 20 days time. On the whole we are really looking forward to getting back home and catching up with everyone. Talia and Latia thought the school band might be at the airport to welcome us home. I reminded them that we go home in the school holidays so no children will be at school. Speaking of school, at Savaii Talia and Latia where watching fish and I said that is a ‘school of fish’, they then said where is the teacher! Latia jumps in and says I’ll be the teacher of course there was no fish left to teach.
I’m not sure we will ever be able to cope with the communal living. Last night at 10.30pm we had 3 young adults sitting on our verandah texting and receiving calls on their cellphones. I very politely asked them to go home to their place all 4 mitres away.
Onto a new page so that must be enough rambling for now.
Elizabeth

Talofa lava from the Grey tribe

Sorry we haven’t been updating much lately. Firstly I was sick and then Latia, both down with Dengue Fever, it just amazes me how such a small insect can cause so much pain!! It put us out of action for about a week we were both recovering when our neighbours Jan and Clive arrived for a week away from the wind and rain you have been experiencing. So it was on with the tour guide hat and showing them the sights of Samoa. Emile will hopefully get some pictures on today. Did try last week but it didn’t work for some reason. We have a boarder staying a couple of nights a week. Emile’s cousin’s daughter Mazi (16yrs) who attends Robert Lois Stevenson’s High School up the road has been staying. Otherwise she had to leave the village at 5.30am in the morning to get to school on time and she has exams coming up soon. So she enjoys a sleep in at our place a couple of days a week. The girls are enjoying having some new company and she brought with her a proper bed, so all the girls have turns sleeping on it when she is away! We had our first night out without children thanks to a built in babysitter, let’s hope we get a few more!! It is now countdown till Leilani’s birthday on the 30th August when we will be in Savaii so she can swim with the turtles, provided they are not too big!! We are also looking forward to the Perham-Roselli family arriving over in time to celebrate the birthday as well. Here’s hoping the weather is starting to improve in New Zealand or we might be tempted to stay in the Heat of the Tropics!! Just joking, we are looking forward to coming home even if it is going to be cold!


One of the many falls we visited
The Market experience

Arrival...Yes Jan and Clive were in Samoa
Walking the streets of Apia
"How much?" Asks Clive

The bus experience not to be forgotten
Lunch all together!!

Jan and Clive have arrived!!

Jan and Clive arrived Thursday morning and ince then we have been busy busy busy and having a great time. We're all in town now, arrived by bus! An experience on it's own!!:-) We did half the island yesterday east side of upolu was great. I have picks to put up later on.......just checking emails! Monday is a public holiday and we will most likely do the otherhalf of Upolu then.

Thank you to the snail mail people have sent!! It's great!!

Gotta shoot the breeze and cvatch up with everyone else!.......Pics coming prob tuesday our time.

Malo soifua Emile

By Talia

Jane's Beach Fales
The lava flow
Striking a pose at Jane's beach fales

By Talia
We went to Savai’i and we first went to see the Lava flow. We saw the buried Church and a Lava Cave. When we went to stay at Jane’s fales, we had breakfast. We got hot water and sugar and a juice.

Don't forget to check out Maleina's and Leilani's Blog,.......They have been updated!!!!!

The Blow holes in Savai'i

Yeh we have arrived at the Blowholes
Watching Daddy throw a coconut into the hole....

There it goes!!!!
I am king!!....... But wait there is more nd as you would have read in Elizabeths piece....The Freak wave that the kids running to the car screaming............ It was awesome and the biggest wave, blow or what ever happened when we were out there and it'ss all captured on film!!......So I'll leave it there!!

Now there wont be much of a story here and Maleina will finish it off in her blog........she's writting away as I type at home school so be expecting in the next few days!!

1 more term to go and wer'e back in the holidays!

emile

Elizabeths Piece

the fallen tree across road
Togitogiga falls
Bathing beauties!!

The Brothers
Janes Beach Fales
Lava flow into Church
Look left of Maleina''s head and enlarge and you will see the Pe'a Pe'a bird.
Yep....only a 3 metre swell +

We have just had a fantastic couple of days on Savaii, being real tourist again!! We saw and experienced heaps, some things I’m sure even Talia and Latia won’t forget, like seeing a flying fox (fruit bat) in broad daylight just above the car. An awesome sight, when they are becoming rare and usually only seen in the evenings or early morning. Also went into a lava tube cave, where Emile captured on camera the peapea (swiftlet bird) which is about the size of a large moth and moves extremely fast, we could hardly see them when inside the cave. The lava flow around the island also provides plenty of interesting sights. The blowholes have created mixed reaction from the girls as you may well see in the photo line up! Maleina and Emile got caught in a freak wave…. I”ll leave the rest for Maleina to write in her story. Then you may even be lucky enough to get Emile’s account of the amazing blowholes. I was fortunate enough to capture what will be my most favourite photo of Samoa I think, ‘the brothers’ on their horse’. We stopped and gave them $1tala each for the photo and the smiles got even wider, plus showed them the photo on the camera. It was a “Mastercard moment: Priceless.” Staying in the beach fales right on the beach are certainly an experience in themselves and epitomise the Samoan lifestyle unfortunately the weather wasn’t that kind to us, but the girls still managed to get into the water swimming and snorkelling at every opportunity. We even got treated to a ‘rollercoaster ride’ on the way home on the ferry, a swell and roll that must have measured 3m + and the Samoans’ just slept. Thankfully no one was sick and returned safely to Lotopa, only after passing a fallen tree on the main highway that had closed the road but the traffic just drove up on the garden of the adjacent houses, while the locals attacked the tree with axes and machetes. No chainsaws here!! We are now planning our next trip back to Savaii for Leilani’s birthday at the end of August. We would just like to congratulate ‘the Nelson cyclists’ on their effort as obviously in some parts of Savaii you had your work cut out for you getting up those hills!! Hope you are coping being back in cold Nelson!! Last photo of Togitogiga falls which we went to today, very impressive due to all the rain they have been having on the other side of the island. We also tried to get to Black Sand beach but flooded so will have to try again some other time.

We are off to Savai 2morrow

Yes tomorrow morning we leave for Savai’i for a couple of days and a night. Yes our backyard mechanic car is getting repaired?? So we have had to rent one. We are looking forward to going because that’s where everyone seems to go and there are by far more things to do and explore. I’m hoping to see the ancient star mounds that are around different points of the island and the Pulelei mound, the largest rock construction in Polynesia. …..As for the others…..Turtles, beaches and beach fales, what else would ya come to Sava’I for? Yes there is also the rain forestry canopy walk way. Pics coming soon when we get back!!!