Hi,

Where to start! We are having trouble finding a suitable computer to upload photos but hopefully when we're back in NZ we'll be able to as we have lots of great photos - still some from Japan - that we want to put up. I'm typing this from the most westerly internet cafe in the world!

At the minute we are in Samoa on the West island, Savaii, staying in a fale (fa-lay) on the beach. After Jenni and Mervin's hospitality this is a far cry but it is very special here. Mervin kindly drove us to the airport 4am on Wednesday for our plane to Samoa. Jenny was most disappointed that there was no food on the short flight. We did however manage to time travel quite drastically as it was Tuesday morning again when we landed. We were greeted in the tiny Samoa airport by a small band which was nice. We took a taxi to the closest town, Apia, where we stayed a night in a cheap motel. They had Gecko's crawling along the walls and ceilings! We explored Apia a bit - mostly markets and shops. The following morning we met a lady called Tanya, a New Zealander who had been to Samoa 4 times. She recommended an area to us that Jenny had already read about and that was closer to the experience that we were after instead of the hustle and bustle of Apia. So with full directions and recommendations from Tanya we set of to Manase, which involved a local bus to the airport, a taxi to the wharf, a ferry to the second island and and another bus to the village. It took a long time and the buses are not entirely comfortable. they don't exactly run to a timetable and we waited 2 hours for the bus to get here. We noticed that on the buses if all the seats are taken and somebody gets on, a child will give up their seat for an adult and go and sit on the lap of another kid. It doesn't matter if they know each other or not - they'll just plonk themselves down!

After a very long journey we arrived and it was definitely worth it. Our fale is right on the beach and there is hardly anyone around, we have the beach to ourselves. The family who run it are very nice and breakfast and dinner is included. Bananas are on tap as they grow them here. The family have a little boy called Lyar who is a little rascal, sneaking up and throwing things at us! There are chickens wandering around and 2 of them have a group of little chicks that we can hear chirping as they wander past our fale. we have had 1 night in the fale so far and it rained but we were fully sheltered. Today we got up, had breakfast, swam in the sea and relaxed in our fale. Tomorrow it is Jenny's birthday and we are going to swim with turtles just down the road. It does feel like we are at the edge of the world here!

We've both been in the wars a bit over the past few days. jenny managed to cut her finger on the boat in NZ - thank you everyone at work for the plasters, they have come in useful already. jenny also managed to get bitten or stung by something which made her ankle very red and swollen and she had a bit of a limp but that is settling thanks to my healing hands and skills with a bandage. I've got a cold - typical!- so i was already bunged up but after the flight here my ears were blocked and so i spent all of yesterday not being able to hear much. nearly back to normal now though.

Luckily here in the middle of nowhere there is a place called Raci's beach hut which has an internet connection, although it is slow and expensive so we may not be back on for a while. raci is a funny Swedish guy who also rents out snorkelling stuff and bikes so we will do that at some point.

That's about it for now.

From the edge of the world,

Chris and Jenny.