I'm staying at "Dave Parker's Eco Lodge" and they
were so kind as to send their sons to collect me from the airport last night.
Funny enough, I was really worried during my flight to Samoa,
so I'll quickly go over my flight...
On my declaration form I had to fill in flying here, I had
ticked "Yes" to several of the boxes that would flag me as a person
that will need to be checked out. I had "offensive weapons",
"Food product", "hunting/fishing gear", "prescription
medicines" and "good bought with a value over $500". It only
really was my fishing knife, some sweets, my fishing rod and reel and bicycle
and laptop which I believe is worth more than $500.
That said, the declaration paper look rather dodgy with all
the boxes ticked and I cannot see any other passenger with ticked boxes.
Luckily it was only a 3 hour 20 min flight from Auckland,
so I only had 3 hours and 20 minutes to worry about my "reception"
with THAT declaration card.
Exciting the plane you immediately notice that you're in the
tropics now. The wall of hot air, almost like hot breath hits you in the face,
it smells like sea-spray and tropical fruit.
After the collection my bag from the conveyor and bike from
the "over size luggage department" I found myself near the very back
of the customs que. I though, "hey, this is not too bad, at least when
they take my back and stuff apart I won't be holding up the que". It turns
out there is a second, nearly empty que marked "Declared goods and
Quarantine" with some pretty big and solid Samoan guys manning the area.
-this intimidating path is all mine..
It ended up being nothing at all, its really funny... the
inspector looked at my card, then asked what do I have that's over $500. I
pointed at my bike and before I can mention my laptop and what ever else he
just said "ok, no problem. You can go"
-Did he even look at the rest of the card? I did not waste
time to get moving, passing everyone in the other que... they were having al
their bags x-rayed and several people were un-packing their bags... why I just
get to walk in with no x-ray, no check no nothing is above me, but hey I'm not
complaining.... confused, but not complaining...
At the arrivals area I'm greeted by 3 separate guys with bad
English each trying to get me to take their taxi. Luckily I saw a man with a
large smile holding a sign with my name large and clear on it.
"Pheww" I thought, someone is here and this stressful part is nearly
over. The man quickly told me he'll go get the car, then spoke something in
Samoan to some young lads hanging in the area. The lads quickly rushed over,
one grabbed my bag from the trolly and another two grabbed the bike box.
I must admit I was a little worried, the lads looked rather
"dodgy" in my terms, they were dressed in some dirty pants, wife
beater shirts, wrong-way-round caps and had tattoos on their arms and necks.
-Now this is the type of "look" I would normally avoid by miles, but
in this case they were actually send just to carry my bags and take care of me,
and despite the first impression they are the sons of the famed Dave Parker at
who's lodge I'll be staying initially.
I landed at night and the trip in the dark from the airport
to the lodge was sadly a bit dark so I could not see the paradise I was driving
in.
I did notice some things though...
-A large part of the road was bumpy and had several
potholes,
-Surprisingly there were street lights everywhere
-Passing houses I noticed a lack of curtains
-I counted 21 dogs, in little packs of 2-3 and the odd lone
one
-Plenty of washed-away bridges, evidence of the December
2012 cyclone
By the time I got to the lodge it was already around 10:30pm, I was quickly shown my room and man,
was I happy to get to it :-)
I was a little disappointed to find that my phone just does
not want t connect to the Samoan cell system, I though that I'll be able to
send at least one message to let everyone know of my safe arrival, but that
will just have to wait till I get a phone here (hopefully) tomorrow. -In hind
sight they were selling phones and SIM cards at the airport, but I just wanted
to get out of there... Maybe if I took time to have a look I could have gotten
one right there and then.
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