My birthday

Well another year older, although probably no more wiser...still I had a great birthday. Gretchen took me out to see a Super 14 (rugby union) match, which was great, Wellington won by one point and right at the end of the match too. I'll get around to posting a few photos soon.

Then on the actual day we went out to this great little Italian family run restaurant - Maria Pia's. The food was great, I also had my favourite desert Tiramisu and as Gretchen let slip it was my birthday we got a free homemade digestive. All in all a great weekend.

Introduction to Samoa

As most of you know, Matt and I stopped off in Samoa for two weeks to visit my friend Ralph. The moment you step off of the plane, even at 6:30 AM, the first things that hit you are the heat and the humidity. Our bags even had a layer of condensation on them from coming out of the cold airplane!

We made it through security and headed out into the Samoan morning, immediately I saw Ralph running towards us with the biggest grin on his face. He bought me a flower for my hair and Matt a shell necklace. We then headed off to Apia in a ride, only minutes before organized - the Samoan way! Ralph lives in a suburb of the capital, called Tulaele. His home is huge, with three living spaces, and a garden with coconut palms and chickens!

No rest for the wicked and we headed off to downtown Apia to check out the markets. Apia is just how what'd you'd expect of a south pacific capital - fantastic colors and smiling people, but also poverty and pollution. At the vegetable market Ralph introduced us to the local cuisine. Taro leaves filled with coconut cream and fish, and breadfruit, we were also introduced to a staple of Samoan life, fresh coconut milk.

All these new experiences were great but we quickly became exhausted, so after lunch we crashed out at Ralph's, while he went back to the airport to pick up Dave.

That night we feasted on coconut Thai curry, with homemade coconut cream - more on that next post!

Gretchen

Hello from NZ

Hi everyone,

Sorry we haven't posted any updates recently, its been a very busy 3 weeks since we arrived in New Zealand! We've now both got jobs and somewhere to live and as of an hour ago we now have internet access!! No more internet cafes!!

As you may have noticed there's a new link on the right-hand side to some of our Samoa photos, which I'll be updating over the next week or so. Then I'll get to grips with the New Zealand ones!

I promise all the stories from Samoa in the next post!

Matt