Samoa holiday

“Reka, wake up. We’re here.” I heard my father’s voice say. I opened my eyes sleepily to see my frizzy hair all over the place. I looked around the plane and everyone was standing up trying to get their bags out of the luggage storage. I put my tray back in, put my hair behind my ears, squashed down my 4 L&P cans and joined the long queue of passengers waiting to unload from one of Air New Zealand’s planes.

We were in Samoa, there to attend my Aunty Charlene’s wedding. ‘We’ is my dad, mum, older brother Tanielu, younger brother Justus and myself. I was sitting with my dad while my brothers and mother were a row to the right.

All of us on the plane heard the door open and the queue began moving. I was soon at the door and took one step out of the plane. “WHOOSH” an immense amount of heat rushed towards my face. Immediately, I started sweating, while taking my jacket off and trying to balance on a long steel staircase. Once I finally reached the ground I looked up and saw a sign reading : ‘Welcome to Samoa.’ We were here!

This was my first time in Samoa, along with my two brothers. It was around midnight so my family were a teensy weensy bit tired. But after me and my 4 cans of L&P, I was totally enthusiastically, excited about being here in Samoa. We walked through the arrival doors and saw a large crowd of people some holding signs, some holding suitcases, and some half asleep.

My brother spotted a sign reading my dad’s name. We quickly rolled and heaved our suitcases over to the man, then to his van. We hopped in and he took us to an Airport lodge. My dad began to speak to the man in Samoan. My little brother sat in awe getting as close as he could get to the window to see whatever he could. “Dog!” he shouted. “Yes, yes. Lots of dogs in Samoa.” the kind man said. I cringed. I’m a bit cautious around dogs. You see, I don’t really agree with dogs, or bugs, but mostly dogs.

We arrived at the lodge at around half past one, receiving a key to our room. Once we reached our room. We all took a turn through the showers. And once everyone went to sleep. I lied in my bed still fizzed out, not believing I was in the tropical (and VERY hot) island of Samoa. The next day we’d be leaving on a boat for Savaii.

I woke up to the sound of my mum telling us to get up. I woke up slowly, and then realised we were in Samoa. I shot out of bed and into the bathroom to get ready for the day. Before leaving, we had a nice big breakfast. We had bacon eggs and mushrooms. We packed our bags and waited for one of the workers to drop us off to the dock.