Fiji
Solomon Islands
Vanuatu

Samoa
New Zealand

We drove to Lucys fathers family at Fasito’o. Two of Lucy's cousins that had been sponsored by her parents came from this family and they always have gifts for people to take back to New Zealand. We would also be spending a night with them later in our stay and so it was necessary to let them know when this would be. We then drove on little bit further to Lolumoega where we picked up Emma. We had decided to go to Return To Paradise Beach at Lefaga and then on to Matareva beach. Unfortunately the weather was trying its hardest to discourage us and as we drove up the Cross Island Road the rain got heavier and heavier and we thought the day was going to be a wash-out.

As we crossed over the mountains that run down the centre of Upolu and headed towards the southern coast the rain gradually abated. We turned off the road and headed down a track towards Return to Paradise Beach, after paying a custom fee of 5 tala to a group of old men sitting in a faleo'o. When we arrived at the beach it had stopped raining but the skies were still grey. The tide was out and the beach bore little resemblence to the postcards. At low tide it is a very rocky beach with very little sand. Swimming is out of the question in all but a small part, where there is a passage through the rocks. However the rock pools, although just a couple of feet deep are great places to snorkel with a wide variety of fish and corals.

After spending an hour or so in the water we headed back along the rough track to the main road and turned right. The next turning on the right takes you to Matareva beach. Once again we paid the custom fee and drove the couple of miles down the track to the beach. Although the tide was still out Matareva is a far better place to swim than Return to Paradise. It consists of a large lagoon which is completely enclosed by coral reefs and rock. The sea bottom is never much more than 3 meters deep and is sandy, although the further out you go the more corel you encounter. The snorkelling wasn't particularly good because it had been raining very heavily and the water was quite turbid.