Arrived in Samoa

Hello all for the first time in a long time!

Since Japan last year, my husband and I welcomed our daughter, Eliza, in September. I’m absolutely loving being a Mum and she is the happiest little thing. Given that overseas travel has always been such a huge passion of mine, it’s so exciting being able to bring Eliza and share it with her. Her first overseas trip is to Samoa, as Rob, Eliza, Mum, Dad and I are here for Mum’s 60th birthday which is on Saturday.

Before I talk about what we’ve seen and done so far, I want to acknowledge at the start of today’s post that I recently lost a dear friend, who was very much into her overseas travel as well and enjoyed this blog. We would help each other plan trips and constantly send each other travel related content online. I miss her very much, this post is dedicated to you, you know who you are. A vibrant, adventurous, bold, intelligent person, gone far too soon.

We set off for the airport just after 8am and met Mum and Dad in the carpark before catching the bus to the terminal. In true Eliza form, she was smiling and babbling away at strangers on the bus, making friends everywhere she goes as always. If only the same could’ve been said for the lady serving us at the Fiji Airways counter. Such an unfriendly, unhelpful person in a customer facing role. It says a lot when your baby is better with people than a fully grown adult!

We went through security and headed to the Aspire Lounge which was included in our holiday package, where we enjoyed some food, drink, friendly staff and peace and quiet before boarding. Unfortunately the unhelpful lady checking us in had sat us in two pairs very far apart, so we did the best we could on the flight but it was hard only having the two of us to entertain Eliza for five hours and pass her between. All things considered though, she was fabulous. She mostly sat in our laps playing with toys, smiling at people and even had a 40 minute nap in Rob’s arms. Somehow she also managed to change my TV language to Korean, and she also enjoyed a cuddle with some of the hostesses down the back for a while too. They were so many people she became friendly with on the flight. Unfortunately she finished the flight by stinking up her pants big time during descent, but hey, you can’t have it all!

During the layover in Fiji,  we got the stroller back after a while, and the airline staff had broken it accidentally. But Rob got Eliza to sleep in a quiet corner and we boarded our next flight. We had spare seats near us this time for the two hour flight to Apia, Samoa and were near Mum and Dad. It was a lot more comfortable. The staff on board were really friendly again, and one of them even asked to take Eliza on an adventure at one point and took her with him to check everyone was ready for our descent. She was smiling away and loving it. Going to have to teach her re strangers at some point!!

When we arrived, our transfer was waiting for us for the 50 minute drive to our resort. Unfortunately the car seat for Eliza that Mum had requested wasn’t, so I had to hold her in my arms the whole way. Luckily she slept and the drive was a quiet, uneventful one. We’ve quickly realised here that things are very relaxed, so much so that many things fall by the wayside even if they’ve been agreed upon previously. Thankfully the road was very quiet and had a low speed limit. It was pitch dark but I spotted about 50 churches along the way.

We arrived and went to check in, and the next miscommunication was that they hadn’t linked our bookings as they’d said, so we were in totally different buildings. Eventually this was sorted out and we headed to our rooms, in the meantime Eliza enjoyed the huge ceiling fans in reception. She was such a good girl considering what a huge day it had been. We've since been moved to two nearby rooms to make it easier with meeting up and caring for Eliza. It was lucky I had decided to bring our portacot in the end, as we later realised we had requested one of these and not been provided it either.

Eliza slept fairly well despite her ongoing teething, cold/cough and eczema. We got about five hours of sleep and then headed to the breakfast buffet which was pretty good. Lots of people were smiling and waving at her and she enjoyed chomping on some cantaloupe.

We spent the rest of the day not doing too much overall. The resort is really nice and we will explore further another day. It spat rain on and off and was fairly windy, but was very warm still. We went for a swim and Eliza loved the swim canopy I had bought for her to allow her to float and be in the shade. She was happy some of her pool toys from home had made the trip. She eventually got tired so we took her back for a shower, drink and sleep (2 hours - must've been tired!).

Mum, Dad and I then had some food and a drink whilst Rob chilled in the room during Eliza’s nap. We ordered a cocktail and it hadn’t appeared after 15 minutes so we had to chase it up. We are quickly learning here that it’s a bit like Zanzibar, beautiful and picturesque but the service is pretty bad despite the staff being friendly. Just gotta roll with it now we know what the vibe is.

We might go for a bit of a walk around the island we are staying on later, and then we are headed for a buffet dinner tonight before a day trip in a hire car tomorrow. I've booked a car seat, what could go wrong….?!!? Hahaha.

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox