Couple treat themselves to a luxury getaway

By Elizabeth Ah-Hi 24 October 2017, 12:00AM

Paul is a bit of a joker and when he met Dear Tourist outside the Marina carpark, he told us that we had caught him while he was doing a “runner” leaving his wife inside The Edge to pay their lunch bill. 

While he waited for his wife to join him, he started telling us about their holiday so far.

“We are life travelers and Samoa came up so we took it,” he said. 

“We like the warmth and getting away and doing some surfing.  I’ve been surfing twice around Coconuts and we’ve been to the waterfalls. We’ve been doing lots of driving and we are really just enjoying it.”

At this point, Vicky joins the party and good-naturedly rolls her eyes at her husband; she added they were enjoying their time at Saletoga Sands Beach Resort.

“It’s beautiful and also beautiful people are there too, it’s a very well looked after resort and everyone has been lovely to us.  On arrival I thought that Samoa was unspoiled. It’s awesome.”

Paul shared that he has a lot of Samoan friends back in New South Wales, Australia, and so getting to see where they came from had a really deep impact on him.

“I know a lot of Samoans back home and my friend Patrick has a family here in Upolu and when we came over we brought some clothes and little things for them that to us back in Australia, we get easily and never appreciate.

From what I’ve seen they appreciate everything they have. It’s beautiful up there and seeing the way they live. They made a feast for us and it’s something that I’ll hold forever,” he said.

“I just love it here, beautiful people and a beautiful spot. We just love this lifestyle. Like I said when I met my friend Patrick’s family, it’s very special and I asked them,  ‘when I come back, can I stay here’ they said of course, my house is your house and yeah its beautiful it really touched me.”

Vickie agreed: “We’ll be back. We’d love to bring our family back too. We’ve got grown children and we’d like to bring them back for a family holiday.”

While the couple was enjoying the luxury comforts of staying in a resort, they revealed that it is not their usual style to do so and they generally preferred to travel off the grid.

“We don’t sit around at the resort; fair enough we can go back to our beautiful luxury hotel this afternoon and have a beer because we are right out there on the water.

Absolutely amazing, we’ve never done this before; we always travelled intrepidly because we really like to check places out. I could have stayed out at Patrick’s family’s place quite easily.”

Vicky added: “We normally take our caravan around; we don’t do resorts so this is a bit of a treat for us.”

You could say that Paul and Vicky were the ying to each other’s yang with Vicky preferring to lie on the beach with her nose in a book and quietly reflecting on her surroundings. 

Meanwhile, husband Paul cannot sit still and yet according to the couple, they have Samoa fitting quite well around their preferences.

“We’re here for 10 days and we want to see the whole island,” said Paul. 

“I get bored really easily but I’ve actually enjoyed the laid back style like on Sunday we respected the no Sunday driving rule so we stayed at the resort. I enjoyed it. But the next day I was ready to go again, I can’t wait to go surfing again. So we love it.”

By Elizabeth Ah-Hi 24 October 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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