Samoa 2012 Trip - Stolen wallet, Waterfalls, and Con Artists

Hey,

In 2012, exactly three years ago we set off for our first big trip in years. At 4 am, we leapt (crawled) out of bed into the mini van waiting to take us to the airplane. The sky was dark, but our smiles bright. We knew how much fun this was going to be, and my dad and aunts and uncles were like little children. They lived in Samoa for 3 years as children, and the idea of revisiting their childhood was ALL that my dad talked about.

Our crew included myself, my brother, Thomas, my parents, my grandparents, uncle Matthew and his partner Leah, Aunty Char and her partner Harry. Now, June is winter in New Zealand... It was 4 am AND FREEZING. I was wearing a tank top underneath a jersey with track pants, I thought I would be smart and change on the plane...

Once arrived at the airport, the mood growing, we were going through customs and signing in our bags, my uncle Matthew had a few problems. In classic Matthew fashion, he had not checked his passport. It was expired. Needless to say Matt didn't join us on that flight! He did arrive a few days later though.

The plane ride was probably the most exciting one I've been on so far! It was three hours long, and I almost peed with exhilaration. No lie. I was surrounded by family on the flight and it passed in what felt like ten minutes. The plane however, was heavily cooled and air conditioned, so my track pants were fine. I did not change out of my track pants !

Our plane touched down, I was a literal human chihuahua. I was shaking so much! We gingerly stepped out of the plane and it was like strolling into an oven. Which was made especially worse by the fact they spritzed a whole thing of frozen air on you, so you stepped out and WHOOSH.
We got in, and everyone needed to pee. I was deserted to watch the bags, standing sweating my butt off BECAUSE SWEATPANTS. I NOW KNOW WHY THEY CALL THEM SWEATPANTS.

Fast forward a couple days later, Matt arrives and joins the rest of us. We decide to go to a waterfall pool dad and Matt used to jump in as kids, which freaked me out. They didn't check how deep it was and I was terrified someone would hurt themselves, I stood there bawling, pleading them not to jump ( they did anyway)
We decided all was enough, and came back to the hired van.

STOLEN WALLET INCIDENT
Unbeknownst at the time, the infamous Matthew had left his wallet on the top of the van. We drove off, and got a good twenty minutes away and he realises he's lost it. We circle back, and at this point it's getting dark, we just wanna go back to the resort. We pull over somewhere near, and we see a man looking at the side of the road, pretty sketchy. He informs us he's "looking for bats" because bats live in the ground, you see. After telling him about the wallet, he definitely knows about it, tells us to follow him and gets in his own car. So we follow him, and a few minutes later a black car pulls up.

A whole bunch of dudes come out the car, one of them with the wallet. Matt checks it but quickly realises he's missing about 300 tala (Samoan money) out of his original 500. They decide to do this weird deal, so one of them hops in our car and Matt goes in their car.
Long story short, he gets 100 tala back, but by then we were over it. I just wanted food and our resort.

CON ARTISTS
One day we were just checking out the churches and had parked in the market parking lot. We definitely looked like tourists! One man made a beeline towards us, and randomly just starts talking to Dad and I. He introduces himself as 'Trevor' then asks Dad's name, "Stephen? Really? That's my name too!" He literally just introduced himself as Trevor... Trevor? Stephen? WHO KNOWS.

I stand there awkwardly, he talks about his 'two three year old children' he specifically says two children, and then asks my age, he then goes "I have a daughter your age!" DO YOU TREVOR STEPHEN?! He then launches into an elaborate story about how his home is still destroyed by the tornado (I think was a few years prior) and how he's homeless. He think shows us his plastic bag which contains heaps of lava lavas. And of course being the person I am, I persuade dad to buy me one, which he only pays 30 tala for and the man points out that dad has more money in his wallet. The only problem is the lava lava wasn't really a lava lava, it was made of extremely rough scratchy material... And I have never worn it... It is sitting in my wardrobe in shame as you read.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
Definitely a highlight of the trip for me, was climbing Robert Louis Stevenson and seeing the Robert Louis Stevenson museum. The man who worked there seemed to really like me! He hugged me and told my Mum to take a photo of us! He was really nice, and while it was a shock to see such friendly people it was a nice change. The whole atmosphere of the museum was awesome, Samoa seems to really love Robert Louis Stevenson, having carried his coffin all the way up the mountain and burying him at the top.

Overall, Samoa was just such a relaxed and awesome trip. We didn't try fit in everything into our days, we kept it simple and just drank in all the beauty. Samoa is a really special place and definitely has a little piece of my heart! I would go back in a heartbeat, just maybe not with Matt!