Bookmarks from Spain

I recently received an email at work from a person in the Canary Islands, Tenerife, Spain who collects book marks and asked if I could send some from Samoa for her collection.  I received these back in the post.  The handcrafted one is particularly beautiful.

Samoa's Christmas/New Year Races

Every year over the Christmas/New Year period, Samoa hosts horse races over a two day period at the Faleata race course.  This was our first time at the races.  Although not too successful in terms of making our millions, we did enjoy some time in the sun and the excitement of seeing "our" horses run, even if they did come last and second to last.  I guess that is what you get for betting on the "palagi" coloured horse and the one named "kiwi"!!  Perhaps next time we can consider better odds than the colour and name of the horse?!!  It was also interesting to see the Presidents 700m dash bareback race!

Placing our bet

Corona (the Palagi horse) looking good before the race while checking out what the finish line looks like!

Bareback

"Kiwi"

 Budding race horses?  Maybe a few too many ribs showing at the moment though!

 What a winner looks like

New Samoa National Provident Fund building

The new Samoa National Provident Fund (SNPF) building is now open is downtown Apia.  Looking rather flash it houses a few shops and cafes on the ground floor and has 2 floors of office buildings above.  So far Frankie's Supermarket, Tapa (Mena), Pacific Jewel, Bean Central (Coffee Bean Cafe) and Revive are in the plaza and there is room for a Bar/Cafe as well.  There is also a shop called "Farmers" however this is more like the local Coin Save than the Farmer's we know and love from NZ.  Perhaps this person has a point. 

This plaza is a Samoan first and demonstrates the "progress" going on here.  Here is an article in the Samoa Observer about the opening Samoa's $52 million Plaza

Yonana!!

Discovered the invention of this amazing machine while in NZ for Christmas and consequently received one as a present as we were so taken with it.  Since returning to Samoa we are finding it great.  The Yonana produces "icecream" from frozen fruit.  Yes only frozen fruit, no other additives or dairy products.  Our favourite combination is papaya (paw paw), pineapple and mango however as the name suggests bananas are also a good base.  Here we have the small misiluki bananas (like lady finger bananas) which are flavoursome so another good combination is banana, papaya and a hand full of frozen red berries.

Yummy and refreshing!

Here is the frozen fruit ready to go in

And this is what the Yonana produces

Post Cyclone Evan stripped trees

 It won't take long to regenerate but things are currently looking a bit stripped bare ... 

Le Mafa Pass and Dam

We drove across to the south side of Upolu for New Year.  Things certainly look a lot more barren now that so much vegetation came down during Cyclone Evan.  We can now see things we didn't know were there!  Here are some pictures of the Le Mafa pass and jagged hills plus the hydro dam which you used to catch a glimpse of.

Post Cyclone Spirit

This is the spirit, down but not out!!

Colin & Marcy's Wedding

On the 1st December 2012 we attended my cousins wedding on Herald Island in Auckland, NZ.  It was a beautiful sunny day, just a few days prior to the tornado that hit Henderson!!