i wish samoa was all mine. not mine as in a colony or something. just mine as in my special secret. because the fact that other people who are not me are in samoa right now and enjoying it is literally breaking my heart.

i only got back this afternoon. the wounds of leaving are still fresh.

i would like to retain some mystery so you're not going to get a blow by blow account. needless to say every minute was awesome. even when it involved you being herded like cattle by police. POLICE. in the best uniforms ever by the way.

one of the things about samoa is you can always swim. ALWAYS. here i am on one of my first days in samoa. heading to the beach. taking to the lifestyle like a duck to water.




some of you* will be getting awesome postcards from me. samoa is filled to the brim with awesome postcards. anyway, i won't spoil those. but apia was SURPRISINGLY EXHAUSTING. i was offered about a thousand $10 lava lava. and had my bag checked at the grocery store. i looked suss. obviously. walking down the street took it out of you something chronic. thank god i was staying on the other side of the island. at a resort that offered afternoon tea every day at three.


at the end of the day though, it is the natural beauty of samoa that was the breathtaking part. like the waterfalls. the WATERFALLS.

this one is on upolu. after taking this photo a man made us coconut cream from scratch. touristy? yes. but he wasn't a tour guide. so there.



this one is on savai'i. we told ourselves it was the waterfall from the king kapisi video clip. but i was told otherwise by one of my new boyfs. and while i believed him MOSTLY at the time i've looked at the video clip again, and he was right. you can watch it here. and incidentally everything in this video clip i basically saw.

oh yeah, and in samoa there are lots of boys dying to flirt with you. honest to goodness. if you're lucky they will make you feel like a teenager again. leaving you giggling at the message they sent you via their babyfaced friend and having to sneak into your fale drunk on the excitement. and on the vailima. and maybe the whiskey too if i'm being honest. oh the boys! how many hearts did i break in the past week? heaps.

the biggest heart break is my own. i've fallen hard for samoa. and i won't hear a thing against it. and staying at a resort, which initially worried me, turns out to be the only way to live. refer to afternoon tea comment above. on my last day i lay on the beach and read. and slept. and listened to my ipod. and looked up at this....

and tried not to think too much about what i was leaving behind. and the characters i'd met. and the unexpected delights everywhere (like watching the sound of music on the ferry from savai'i to upolu and having a number of cute singalong moments with the guy next to me). and the bananas. have you had the bananas? like honestly they are the best thing in the world apart from samoa. and my new favourite song, i choose you. which i hope pumps in the apia clubs for years to come.

* not all of you though. my hotel ran out of stamps and the postoffice that was meant to be open until midday closed at eleven. for no apparent reason. samoa forever.

last night i dined in the clouds. basically. which leads me to declare waiheke my most favourite small island and te whau my favourite vineyard.

this is what it looks like.

i have photos of being a booze hound over dinner but this is the koru club and i can't upload my photos. sadly for you. and sadly for you, unless you were AL you weren't there with me. to enjoy what USA today called one of the top five most memorable meals in 2007 and what NYC based magazine wine spectator called "one of the best restaurants in the world for wine lovers". recession? what recession? i'm still living like royalty!

the other thing about waiheke is that it is filled to the brim with characters. like the taxi driver who worked for the red hot chili peppers for 48 hours and tells me that flea still blames himself for river pheonix's death. and the other taxi driver who lives on the island because of the drugs but would give it all up to become a professional black jack player. and the couple who hold sculpture competitions on their lawn, but have a loose definition of sculpture (which is how a blue bowl filled with water and a yellow rubber duck qualifies as a sculpture).

waiheke has a community movie theatre that is basically identical to the one in gilmore girls.

so my life long ambition of going to such a theatre was fulfilled when i saw vicky cristina barcelona (8/10) on a rainy saturday afternoon.

anyway, my flight is FINALLY boarding. hurrah. more later.....

i am writing this as i sit in a central south island motel room watching csi miami. the south island is hot, mostly. we started on saturday with christchurch and rumours of another 40 degree day. which basically didn't happen. but, hey, any excuse for a sprinkler party. so we got into our togs and went nuts.

speaking of nuts, a road trip with your family is the most mental idea in history. the term over ambitious springs to mind. plus there have also been fights over the use of english. especially whether the instruction "veer right" means "turn right" or "go straight". needless to say, when your car rental company doesn't give you a map and you haven't yet bought an iphone with gps, this kind of conversation is pretty frequent. plus we haven't yet figured out the right grace period before we can make fun of this kind of hilarity. hence the near tears this morning as we were trying to get out of christchurch to head south.

on the up-side i probably get to feed wallabies tomorrow and my nephews are even more awesome the more you get to know them. plus the warehouse has cheap cds. which leads me to announce my new favourite song of all time:



barry white forever!

am i having a good time?....


i've been in NYC since saturday night. i am having such a marvellous time i'm starting to wonder whether i enjoy my own company too much.

i came to NYC to be a tourist, and it has worked. i've been overcharged for everything. although i walk through the streets with such confidence i just KNOW i look like a local. you should have seen me ordering a hot dog from a street vendor. i absolutely did not look incompetent asking for sauerkraut by just pointing to it and saying 'that stuff'. i've also had a bagel, new york cheese cake and giant pizza. aka all the important new york foods. in fact, i've eaten well - contrary to my first day in NYC where i had two fig newtons for dinner.


luckily they are basically health food (you will note the 'fat free' label).

tomorrow is my last morning and i'm trying to decide the most new york way to spend it. probably listening to some joel (new york state of mind specifically) and eating a bagel in central park. hoping i don't see any rats or similar. and hoping i don't spend another cent (NYC is an expensive city, as the taxi drivers repeatedly tell me).

when smokey sings.... i hear violins....*

holy heck the royal canadian mounted police have just the best mascots. not to mention the hottest uniforms ever. reow.

my conference starts tonight and so i've spent the day desperately trying to DO regina. which is to say, i've tried to find gift stores. i really REALLY wanted a canadian flag umbrella, but it is so bitterly cold and wet i settled for the first umbrella i found: a navy blue number from sears. i am going to use it every day while i'm away - even in miami - because you know once i get back to wellington i will never be able to use it again.

as is my travellers tradition, i went to the drug store earlier this morning. i adored it. so much to look at. it was almost like a physical blow that i could only justify buying some ibuprofen. and even that was only to relieve my headache from overstimulation.

the other highlight so far has been the maple syrup. but that was to be expected. afterall - i am in canada!

*ps i know that this isn't smokey. smokey lives in the USofA. obviously.

the thing about me right now is that i smell. i know it. but there is very little i can do.

luckily cambodians are all polite and noone says anything. in fact, it is khmer new year so the cambodians, in addition to being nice, are all in high spirits - or high on spirits, it is hard to tell. actually, i'm telling slight fibs, new year finished last night. but the banks still haven't reopened so it is kind of like it is still party time.

the only hint i have had that i'm rancid is when i tried to feed an elephant a banana and she wouldn't have a bar of me. bitch. the baboons, however, have been less picky. THAT'S RIGHT I'M COMMUNING WITH NATURE LIKE IT AIN'T A THING.

luckily there are pools everywhere and after a swim there are two or three blissful minutes of being a little bit cool. that plus i'm basically addicted to aircon.

today i went to angkor thom and checked out some temples. i took photos and posed. i am finding that after three solid weeks of selfies that i've kind of grown weary of them and have started to let other people take photos of me. unprecedented. i also saw more elephants and a monkey or two. and used my orange scarf (which i will probably burn when i get home) as a sweat band. we have a guide who i kind of adore who tells us jokes in perfect english and makes sure he points out every interesting photo opportunity for us. but more i adore my driver who hands me bottles of iced water and freezes refreshing towels for us and then opens the door so i can get into the air conditioned van. oh, did i not mention that we're on a private tour? yeah, we have our own driver and own guide. and it all happened by accident. I'M SO MIDDLE CLASS I CAN'T STAND IT.

i have also found my new favourite place for smoothies in an airconditioned white space where you lie on beds! just like that sex and the city episode, only this is siem reap, not new york.

i would tell more but i don't want to exhaust my stories plus my internet runs out in two moments. which is like a metaphor for this holiday which is sadly on its last legs. clean clothes though are an exciting new chapter for me. one that i will be willing to embrace around 2pm on saturday.