We’re slowly working our way through the assortment of South Pacific islands. This year, we ticked off Samoa from our list. Samoa is interesting in that there are two main islands, which are separate from American Samoa, which is only 220 kms away. The date line splits the two countries as well. We asked a few of the locals, and nearly everyone we asked hadn’t ever been to American Samoa.

We stayed on the south side of Upolu at the Senalei Resort, and basically drove around the eastern side of the island, mostly chasing waterfalls. We intended to take the ferry over to Sava’ii, but the ferry was sold out days in advance. Overall, I would highly recommend Samoa, the people were really lovely and really welcoming. The island was among the cleanest that I have ever been to. And the beaches and water was all just fantastic.

This shot was taken looking down the beach from our resort, just before sunset.

Sony A7R II | FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM | 70mm | f/22.0 | 1/200th | ISO200 

A year ago, we took the short 3-hour flight to Vanuatu for a long-ish weekend.  The goal was pretty simple: relax, snorkel and dive. We stayed at the Aore Island Resort, just off of Espiritu Santo. There is little to nothing on the island, a couple of small villages and the resort.  The resort was a bit rustic. It was absolutely lovely, and we were well taken care of. I would highly recommend it.  We did approximately four dives off the shores. These were organized by Aore Adventures. I reckon Vanuatu ranks among my top three dive sites so far.  The coral is great. The dives included both shallow reef dives and deep wreck dives. A pod of dolphins raced our boat. This happened as we were returning to the island after one set of dives. Fantastic island holiday.

Canon S120 | Canon 5.2-26mm | 15.2 mm | f/4.5 | 1/250th | ISO160