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 SAMOA  (Pronounced "SAM WA") Located in the French Polynesian Triangle, drawn by connecting the points of Hawaii,  New Zealand and Easter Island, the other islands are Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Niue, Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia. There's a quick geography lesson for you! In 1962 Samoa was the first Polynesian island to reestablish its independence as Western Samoa. In 1997 it dropped the Western and now is just Samoa, not to be confused with American Samoa. With the motto "Samoa was founded on God", the three very strong tenants in this otherwise quiet tropical island are: Devotion to the Mati (C hiefs) of the villages, F amily and various forms of the  Christian religion .  Small 10 house villages would have two maybe three good sized churches. The Mormons and Seventh Day Adventist churches were prolific. It was frowned upon to wear a bathing suit on Sundays and one small resort asked that you not swim in the ocean on Sunday....
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New Zealand - A Feast of Varied Natural Beauty for the Eyes

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Our six week self driving tour of New Zealand took us from the northern part of the North Island to a circular route around the South Island. While there was a lot of getting up and moving to the next really inspirational walk, hike, sight, it was so worth it.  In this blog I will add a few photos from the places we visited in the order of our itinerary. I will also intersperse a few categories of interest. NORTHLANDS Visiting friends on the Bay of Islands was the most tropical climate of our trip. Some stands of now protected  Kuri trees (like Redwoods) and amazing coastal views, welcomed us to the heart of Maori settlements.  SNELLS BEACH TO ACKLAND Do you think Ackland gets a lot of rain! Fairy houses all along Snells Beach COROMANDEL PENINSULA It's a good thing that we had an amazing time exploring this peninsula before it was hit hard by two internationally reported storms after we left. More fairy houses! ROTORUA If you like the sulphur smells both out of town and a...
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