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.