18th Oct: Caught the 10.00pm flight to Somoa and landed at Apia at 11.50pm on the 17th because we crossed the date line again it makes it all very confusing although if you were celebrating your birthday you could do it twice in the year mad! We jumped on the shuttle bus and got to our G/H called Seipepa's it was very nice and it cost 90Tala=30Euro most of the accomadation includes meals here.
18th again!: Up at 8.00am for the brekkie it was all traditional food and we sat on the floor. We had a selection of fruits, cocoa flavoured rice and coffee. We went back to bed for a bit and then in to town for a look around. Its a lot bigger then Nuka'alofa and more tourists around. We dropped into the tourist info and hit the flea market we took a walk in the park and watched the school kids play on there lunch break. We met up with the belgium girls for lunch and a natter we ate at the food stalls in the market alot of the food is deep fried and tasteless! After we took a walk to the friut market were we got to try the "Kava" which is the local home brew its made from a root and turned into a powder that you mix with water and you end up with a dirty water looking liquid that tastes foul and numbs your tongue but little else from what i gather you have to drink lots and regulary to get the desired effect its used widely and often which is not so good but the guys that drink it get all relaxed and easy and not noisey or boisterous like with regular alcohol. Took it easy for the rest of the day.
19th: After brekkie we went to town and got the bus out to the Robert louis Stevenson Museum. He spent his last few years here before he died. The house he built is a lovely colonial style building and the house contains various artiales that belonged to the family. We took a hike up the hill behind the house to the spot were he and his wife are buried it was pretty steep and took 40n minutes but you got lovely views of the harbour below. When we got back to town we went to the market for lunch a got an egg sandwich and coffee each for 2euro. After we bought ourselves a Lava Lava(local sarong) and headed back or a shower. That night we went to Aggie grey hotel to see a "Fia Fia" which is alocal dance show. The show was amazing with guys beating the drums and blowing in conch shells while the girls did there dances some of the guys dance routines were pretty hectic, afterwards they put on a fire show. When it was finished we went to the Blue lagoon restuarant for some munchies and met up with a dublin couple.
20th-23rd: We jumped on a local bus to Llamano which is on the south east side of the island. It took 1 1/2 hours to get there and we had all sorts of goods onboard from sheets of coragated iron, dozens of lenghts of 3x2 timbers that you had to climb over to get to a seat. We had a Fale right on the beach with some lovely snorkling and swimming only a few feet away. The food here was good we got fresh fish and lobster most nights and there was plenty to go around. We spent our days reading ,swimming and snorkling and at night time we chatted with whoever you sat with at the dinner table we got friendly with a couple from NZ and also a couple from Canada. The stars at night time were so vibrant and clear we could see this really bright star and were told it was Venus we also could see Mars you get to see so much of the sky here its a completely different view from what we get at home when we are lucky to see any stars due to the cloud cover! On Saturday night we had a Fia Fia that some of the locals put on it was a good laugh we all had to go up and do our bit. The snorkling was ok here but nowhere as good as it had been in Tonga.
24th: Got the bus back to Apia today and was it packed the locals stack the kids on their laps or any lap that is available and any time some one from the back has to get off the whole bus would nearly have to get off to give him access! We checked back into Seipepa's G/H and then went to town or some lunch. That night we went for a meal with the Canadian and NZ couples in The "Curry House" the food was very tasty and so much of it there. We had a good night and were both stuffed to the gills!
25th: Our flight is at 4.00am tomorrow morning so we checked out of our hotel and left our bags in storage. It rain for a few hours so we read our books until it stopped. Later we went to the local museum which passed an hour away it was small but had some interesting bits and bobs! We bought some local craft to send home and posted the cards home. That evening we went to the cinema to see "The Exorcisim of emily rose" which was alright On the way back to the G/H we had dinner at Georges Pizza. We spent the rest of the night reading and talking to a couple that were getting the same flight as us.
26th: Got our flight at 4.00am which took us back to Tonga were we waited for an hour then on to Auckland were we had a 10 hour wait over. We spent our time reading and texting all the gang at home and we talked to the folks and a few others aswell before we went to Fiji.
27th: Because of the date line we arrive in Fiji at 9.30pm today its all very confusing! We were picked up by our G/H and bombarded with info on what to do we were knackered and just wanted to hit the scratcher!
28th: