After our short 45 minute flight in a little twin prop plane we landed in Samoa or Western Samoa to give it its old name. We were to stay in the capital of Apia on the island of Upolu. Our first impression was how much more expensive things were on the island but that might be because we had to pay for our accommodation and food for the first time in a long while!

We booked into a small hostel which just happened to overlook the marina. We couldn't escape the damn yachties if we tried! First thing was to book some flights over to Auckland and work out what to do after then. We had a few problems booking a one way flight as the person booking the ticket need proof of onward travel out of New Zealand before he would grant us our entry ticket. We decided to bypass this jobs worth and just booked the flights online.

We had 6 days to kill before we were due to fly out. We had met a Danish guy called Richard (or Dicky as Katie insisted on calling him) at our hostel. The three of us decided to head over to the more chilled out and less commercial island of Savaii. After a ferry crossing over to the island (we just can't stay away from the sea!) we went to a small village over the other side of the island which was home to Savaii's only dive outfit. The three of us went to a locally run accomodation and booked ourselves into a fale. The fale is a wooden platform over looking the sea that is raised off of the sand. The tin and palm frond roof is supported around the platform by 6 poles and palm frond blinds are suspended from these for privacy.

We booked our dive for a couple of days time and spent our waiting days relaxing on the beach, snorkelling and lazing about in our fale to escape the burning midday sun. The morning of our dive came and this was to be a first for us. This was my first open water dive since qualifying and Katie was to be my dive buddy. We were taken out to just inside the reef where the wreck of the vessel Juno was resting around 18m below us. The Juno run aground in 1881 and sat on the reef for many years until a passing cyclone blew it from its resting place and into the lagoon where it promptly sank. The wreck has been covered in coral and has now become part of the reef. The dive was superb with lots of features. Beautiful coral supporting every variety of fish. In one hidey-hole there was an electric flame scallop that once illuminated with a torch had pulsating red lights running along the face of it. There were giant clams and a visiting Hawksbill turtle that allowed us to swim quite close and get a good view of him enjoying his breakfast of algae. We surfaced from the dive after nearly an hour underwater with no problems and its fair to say that Katie was impressed with my diving skills. I think she may let me be her dive buddy again.

After some careful consideration and lots of shall I and shan't I conversations with myself I decided to have a tradition Samoan tattoo. I wasn't going to have this done the easy way though. I managed to get a contact for someone on the other island in a village called Faleasiu. This guy was Petelo Suluape. Each person tattooed by a student of the Su'a Suluape clan also recieves the traditional family signature which occurs as the final marks on the body. These markings are very distinct to the this clan and anyone tattooed by the Su'a Suluape clan will recognize this mark when seen on another person. This is another way to ensure the tattooist autheticity. Petelo had only bestowed the Suluape title on 5 individuals, and the Su'a Suluape title on 3 individuals. Therefore anyone who claims to have had a traditional Samoan Tattoo can only do so if it has been carried out by one of these chosen few.

We turned up at the Fale in the village to see one of the chiefs undergoing his tattoo which was to cover his body from his chest to his knees around his entire body, everywhere! We were lucky enough to get there just as he was having his buttocks tattooed! I watched as Suluape placed the stick containing the spikes on his skin and tapped it repeatedly with another stick to break the skin and leave the indelible inked markings. This big man, the chief, was in pain. Once you have started a tattoo like this it must be seen through to the end. it's a matter of pride as an unfinished design brings shame on the family. I was having second thoughts. The chief finished. Suluape handed me the razor to shave the area I wanted inked. I looked to Katie and part of me hoped that she wouldn't be happy with the sterility of the equipment or something like that. Anything to give me a get out clause as I watched the chief limp off to wash his new tattoo. Then I thought sod it… You are only here once. Suluape positioned me on the floor of the fale with my arm out front face down. Two huge Samoan guys positioned either side of me were there to stretch the skin of my arm so the lines would be straight and crisp and so my tattoo began. I had hyped myself up for it to be the most painful thing in the world but was pleasantly surprised that I could not only take the pain but could also take my head up off the floor and watch him do it. 1.5 hours later I ended up with a one off unique Su''a Suluape hand tapped tattoo and a rather bulbous and bruised looking forearm. All that was left was to spend the next day in Apia enjoying the sun before our flight to Auckland for some cold snowboarding!