Samoa
The story of the trip to Samoa actually beings in Melbourne. I was travelling to the bank to get some local currency (Tālā, I believe). Although I was told that most places accepted credit cards, I was still quite a nervous traveller at the time, and I wanted a backup should the cards fail me. So I went to the bank to withdraw some cash, which was given to me in the form of paper notes (foreshadowing).
There were no direct flight to Apia from Melbourne. We had to transfer through New Zealand. About three-and-a-half hours to Auckland, and another three hours to Apia, with about an hour-and-a-half transfer. We landed in the late evening, and after making our way through the airport we piled into a minibus which would take us to our hotel, the Tanoa Tusitala Hotel. The airport, located at Faleolo, was a good 30 minute drive to Apia itself. Not much happened that evening. After checking-in, we pretty much went straight to bed, ready to begin in the morning.
