Lyric Waiwiri-Smith remembers a serene week eating raw fish and swimming in Samoa.
In June 2023, I traveled from Tāmaki Makauau to Samoa with my (now) ex-girlfriend (love (most) you) family. We spent a beautiful almost two weeks with sand attached to our skin and saltwater dripping from our hair, swimming polished with seafood and the serene feeling that everyone in Auckland was probably still wet and miserable as we let our worries swept in the ocean. Three of my half-simon are Samoans, so culture has always been part of my life, a moment of complete circle being in its Tūrangawaewae for the first time.
Where did you go and how long?
We traveled to the main island of Samoa Upolu and stayed at Sinalei Reef Resort and Spa in the village of Siumu, which hosted the King and the Queen of England at the end of last year. Let me say that straight from the bat: I didn’t pay for my own accommodation.
What was the reason for your trip? Adventure, an event, a few pampering, a family holiday or something else?
My ex-boyfriend’s mother retired early after a few years of departure, and was lucky to be invited to join the post-worker life of my honorary mother-in-law, with most expenses paid.
Have you visited some famous place? What is your honest review?
The best thing about Samoa is that if you rent a car and remain really brave on the roads, you can see almost all the island’s tourist destination in a week. One of the first points we hit was the old Apia market, where I marked an incredibly beautiful bag for NZ $ 95 and some coconut oil (it really isn’t the same in Aotearoa).
We also visited the trench for the ocean for his (I was very cowardly to jump), the Immaculate Cathedral of Conceição (incredibly beautiful, although very severe compared to the vast banners of unstable housing nearby), the pinion of pins. But the best thing to do in Samoa is to go to a beach, find a local restaurant and just kick or jump into a kayak and paddle – I swear I saw a turtle swimming on the Sinalei coast.
What items do you pack that you really needed? And what do you pack that you definitely didn’t do?
Required: swimsuit, sunscreen, sunglasses, shirts and skirts. It didn’t need to, but it’s definitely good to have: a yoga rug, for 5 in the morning improvised, extends on the beach.
How much did it cost for a coffee or a beer?
The price of a Taulo can in most customers was $ 7 or NZ $ 4.43.
What was the best meal or snack you had?
It is impossible to choose a better singular meal, so I will go through all the food I had to surprised me: Oka, Chop Suey (Absolute Classic 10/10 dish, without notes), Crab, Marlin, LogosTins, Fresh Fruit Sortiments and Fried Chicken. Everything you need to enjoy Samoana cuisine is a taste for coconut, kaimoana and fried chicken up.
What was the highlight?
At a very personal level, being in a country where the Polynesian people are most was beautiful for me to try as a Wāhine Maori traveling from Aotearoa. I no longer know how to explain the feeling beyond the sense that seeing Moana nui Kaihana living with all her heart in her sister really informed mine. It seemed especially good when a place called my ex-boyfriend “bloody pālagi” and I lost taking a bond.
Otherwise, using resort-borrowed equipment, I was diverse for the first time along the front of the Sinalei ocean, between the reefs and the rainbow scale fish. I remember lifting my head above the water and seeing the sky pink like the sun, and small rain patterns breaking the surface of the ocean. I don’t think life has never felt so serene until that moment and never since then.
And the low light?
Between thinking that I would die after being caught in a tear and thinking that I would die after contracting food poisoning, it is difficult to choose the best low light. But other than that, it was a very soft navigation.
What travel/vacation readings would you recommend for this destination?
I read Edward Slingland’s drunk: As we drank, dance and stumble on the way to civilization because, about drinking, it looked like an appropriate reading of vacation beach. I also took a copy of Treasure Island from the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum, but I think if I came back, I would get something like Baba Ram doss’ is here now and would have some kind of total spiritual awakening in the sand, where I aligned all my chakras and I decide to live life like that rich boy at the end of the white lotus season one.
Would you come back?
1000%, without a doubt – I would love to go back and stay in Savai’i next time. If any rich general has an early retirement plan and a single son, beat my line.
