Surf and Turf in the South Pacific

Please make sure that you've read the last installment of our blog from New Zealand before you read this, we published them both at the same time!

There aren't many places where you can take off in the early hours of the morning and arrive in time for breakfast the day before - and there wouldn't be many times when we could pop to Samoa for a long weekend - but from New Zealand we could, so we did!

Our place took off from Auckland at 1am on 23 March and after crossing the international date line and only three hours of flying we landed in Faleolo International Airport at 5.55am on the 22nd of March. We were greeted by a Samoan band playing some classic Samoan pop on an assortment of stringed instruments and then it was through the doors where we were met and given some rather tired looking leis before hopping aboard the minibus for the forty five minute ride to Sinalei Reef Resort, on the south of the island of Upolu.

Having spent the better part of our trip staying in rather basic accommodation we had decided to spoil ourselves for the four nights that we would be in Samoa and had booked into the best resort on the island (that's not saying much mind you, there aren't many resorts and most of them are just huts).

We came here for the glorious weather

After breakfast and a sleep to recover from our travelling we spent the afternoon exploring the resort and discovered that there was a surf camp next door (very basic) that provided a lift to the surf breaks in their boat, for a small fee (all the breaks are on the outer reefs, about a kilometre offshore). This was very good news because I hadn't expected to be able to surf in Samoa as we were there for such a short time, so I booked for the next morning.

It was shortly after this that we discovered that some pesky baggage handler had been a bit brutal with my board. The tail had taken quite a whack and had split open, but with the help of some surf wax and some sticky tape, just like Blue Peter, it was fixed.

The next morning we were up early for breakfast, then I was straight over to the surf camp. I went out in a boat with a local guide and six US Coastguards, whose boat was in Apia being repaired. They had come over to kill some time - they were all based in Hawaii and were very good surfers. I didn't know what to expect, and going by my luck on this trip I wasn't too hopeful, but as we pulled up to the break and dropped the anchor I could see that it was absolutely perfect. There was not a breath of wind, it was like glass, there were six foot lefthand waves peeling down the reef and there were only seven of us out there.

I've been waiting six months for this!

The perfect day

It also helped that the water was twenty eight degrees celsius and the sun was blazing, it was beautiful. It was without a doubt the best surf I've ever had in my life. There was one drawback though......

The tide was dropping and the water was getting shallower over the coral reef, after about two hours of non-stop fun I caught a lovely wave, but I stayed on it too long. I noticed that the water was getting shallower and shallower beneath me (one of the things with surfing tropical reefs is that you can see EVERYTHING that is under you as you surf along), then I got knocked off my board by the wave and landed head first on the reef. I was very lucky, because I managed to get away with just a bruised and very bloody nose. After a sit down in the boat until the bleeding stopped (to make sure the sharks didn't smell the blood) I got back out there for another two hours! I think when I got back, Sarah thought that I'd been beaten up!

War wounds

The following day was rugby day in the local village, so we decided we should go along and have a look. There were matches going on all day, but when we got there the Under 21 local village team, Laumoosoi, were playing. We weren't sure where we were supposed to go in to watch it and walked up and down the road outside a few times before another of the guests from Sinalei spotted us and came to fetch us. We were treated like honoured guests by the locals, given chairs to sit on, everybody else was sitting on the floor, and the announcer on the tannoy welcomed 'our visitors from overseas'! The rugby was not very good, they kept dropping the ball and some of the refereeing decisions were a bit suspect, but it was fun to watch.

Knees, squeeze, NOW!

They are certainly passionate about the game and the players really gave it their all. The biggest problem there was the heat, although we had had torrential rain for an hour before the match, by the time we had got there the sun had come out again and it was scorching. We were sitting there watching the game while quickly roasting! By the time we had got to half time of the second match we gave up, it was just too hot. We retired to the pool and happy hour in the bar alongside.

Sunday dawned sunny and hot again, so I decided that I had better get out onto the golf course before the roasting afternoon heat. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but by the seventh hole (of nine) I was absolutely cooked. It was hard going anyway, because the fairways looked like they hadn't been cut for about six weeks and the ball didn't run at all, but it was fun.

Our little piece of paradise - a garden fale

Next morning we were booked in for another little luxury - a massage each in Sinalei's spa. I had a normal relaxing massage while Sarah went for the hot stone massage. My massage was lovely, but Sarah seemed even more pleased with hers, she actually had two girls doing her massage. I could hardly speak or walk by the time we had finished, and Sarah was dribbling out of the side of her mouth, she was that relaxed.

We had been invited, along with our new friends Michael, Amanda, Brooke and Ben, for lunch that day at Edwin the barman's house in the village. He picked us up in his ageing people-carrier (with a massive crack right across the windscreen) and took us to meet his family. The house was pretty basic and seemed to consist of mostly empty large rooms and there were lots of children appearing from different places all the time. Edwin didn't actually eat with us, he just kept bringing all the food and drink out to us, saying that it was part of the culture that the host doesn't necessarily eat with his guests, but I wasn't convinced. The food was quite interesting, Taro root, which they eat as a staple instead of potato, with a coconut cream parcel to start, followed by rice soup with chicken and fish (oh and more taro). The main problem was that taro is so filling that having had it as a starter, no one really had any room for the main course.

Yes, we explained to Edwin that's not a friendly gesture!

We spent the rest of the day lounging by the pool, killing time and trying to avoid Neville*, someone that we met on our second day. I had stupidly asked about his diving trip that morning. What a mistake, we were then subjected to a twenty minute monologue where we couldn't get a word in edgeways. I made Sarah promise there and then that if I ever became that obsessed with diving and unable to talk about anything else, that she would put me out of her misery.

• not his real name

Sunset over the Pacific

So that was Samoa, a very nice long weekend. It would be nice to go again and have more time for surfing. Next stop California....

By the way, Sarah is still travelling with me, there just aren't any pictures of her in the blog!