The Grey Family in Samoa 2008: July 2008

Friday, July 25, 2008

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!!!!!

Monday, July 21, 2008

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.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

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!!!

Check out Leilanis page.

I have a story....Leilani

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Palolo Deep Marine Reserve
We had a school outing to the reserve today, it was amazing! Just like swimming in the Nemo film, we decided we just about saw all the fish except for Nemo perhaps he is still lost after all!!! My favourite were the florescent blue and green ones that looked like they glowed in the water and this white, blue, black and orange one that had racing stripes down the side with black and blue stripes between its big googly eyes! The coral and sea weed was pretty interesting as well, shame we don’t have an underwater camera, but you will just have to imagine these wonderful creatures. Think the locals would think nothing of eating them! Yes just as well Emile wasn’t feeling 100% or we might have been having a fisherman’s basket for dinner? The girls are keen to return and venture out to the hole next time, but it is about 500m of shore.

Never too far from Home!

Had a great time on Saturday morning catching up with some friends from Stoke. Carolyn and Patrick White with the team of excited bikers, preparing bikes for a trip around Savaii. Thanks to Carolyn home schoolling has become a whole lot more interesting with some software for Maleina and Leilani to work on. The girls all came home on Saturday morning and got stuck into the books and the computer programme, that says something, “School on Saturday!” We hope the team have an excellent holiday. The weather has been kind so far and Samoa won the rugby on Saturday afternoon so the blocks should have had a good time!