Thursday, 5 May 2016

Mrs Tofa's holiday recount

By Friday 15 April I was ready for a break from school. Term one had been a busy term with routines to be set up, a new working environment to get used to and a new class to teach and work with. I felt I deserved a nice break away from school for the two weeks.

Although it is called school holidays, I did not have much of a holiday in the first week. First I had to go to Hamilton with my church for a camp. The camp was at a site called Camp Tuhikaramea. It was only for three days but it was intense. I use the word intense because I was one of the organisers and I had the job of secretary which means the person running around to do things for the leaders.

At Camp Tuhikaramea, I enjoyed planting native New Zealand trees, cooking with the youth, laughing at skits and chants and also being away from school. Sadly I have to leave camp a day early because I had a university class to attend on Wednesday.

I spent the rest of the first week of the holidays at the Epsom campus for the University of Auckland. Miss Stone and I had to meet and plan for the learning of our class. I always enjoy being at the University of Auckland because it is a place of learning and the environment is so peaceful and quiet.

The highlight of my school holidays was in the second week of the holidays. My husband wanted me to go to Samoa for a holiday and therefore sent me to Samoa to escort his mum back home. We flew out on Tuesday 26 of April the day after ANZAC DAY. Our flight was in the morning and this was because we wanted to arrive in Samoa in the afternoon to catch a ferry to Savaii which is the biggest island of Samoa.

As we touched down in Samoa, I felt butterflies in my stomach. I always feel like this when I go to Samoa because it is my homeland and where most of my family live. As we disembarked from the aircraft, the heat of Samoa just encompassed me like heated blanket.

My time in Samoa was very limited to only five days. I had to spend three days in Savaii then made the hour long ferry trip back to Upolu to spend time with my father’s family and then return to New Zealand.

What I enjoyed the most in Samoa was the food. I ate a lot of taro with coconut cream and drank Samoan koko. I was not interested in eating meat because meat is found in excess in New Zealand. I also ate local fruit and vegetables. Unfortunately I did not eat any mangoes as they are not in season so I ate Samoan mandarins and guavas. I also enjoyed being back at my family home and decorating my grandparents’ graves with flowers I brought from New Zealand.


The interesting part of my trip to Samoa was my lack of excitement to go and do what other tourists would do such as shopping, swimming, eating at restaurants and for forth. I usually participate in these activities on previous trips but on this last trip, I mostly stayed at home.

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