Fishing adventures in Samoa

By Elizabeth Ah-Hi 13 February 2018, 12:00AM

Sebastian and Adrian of Wellington, New Zealand, were spending their last few hours in Samoa taking advantage of the cocktail specials at the Sunset Bar inside the Taumeasina Island Resort.

The boys arrived in Samoa last week Thursday just as the weather was turning in Samoa, but they told Dear Tourist that they weren’t really fussed with the high winds and torrential rain.

“It just woke me up with the loud wind and rain, especially on the roof,” said Sebastian. “The room got pretty flooded because it came through the roof. It wasn’t really scary, I went and had a big night so I was a bit drunk so it just seemed funny to me when the water was dripping on to his (Adrian) bed from the roof.”

The two friends are big fans of fishing and wasted no time in chartering a fish boat. 

“We went fishing down the other end on a fishing charter,” said Sebastian. “It was just us on a small boat. We caught a giant trevally and he (Adrian) caught a barracuda. We fish a lot in New Zealand so it was a good experience to fish out here because there are all kinds of different fish species that we saw, it’s quite exciting.”

Sebastian said they didn’t eat the fish, but as Dear tourist found out, their catch turned out to be a handy bartering tool during their adventures. 

“Yesterday, we ended up running out of diesel on the way back from our fishing trip so we went to the petrol station by Lalomanu, but there was a big slip blocking the roads so we went round the long way because it was still the closest petrol station. Then when we got there, the station wasn’t working because the roof had blown off and there was no power and then we ran out of gas on the way back to Apia.”

“We managed to get some fuel from some contractor; we got a big 10 liter container for a $100 tala. We gave some fish to the guy who helped us get the guy who had the gas. He was pretty stoked with the fish; everyone here is pretty nice and friendly.”

The boys’ habit of sharing their catch extended to finding beers as well because they told us of an interesting beer run excursion on Monday.

“We were going around Apia to find a place to buy beer then we saw this place with all these Vailima bottles and this big roller door, so we just stopped there and asked them if they sell beer,” said Adrian.

The boys found that they could recycle their empty Vailima bottles and used their “discount” to buy 25 more beers. And just for good measure, they gave the retailers some fish they had caught earlier.

“Adrian brought over a rod with him so we‘ve just been fishing in front of the Taumeasina Island Resort,” said Sebastian. “So we had some fish in the refrigerator that we took out with us on ice, but since the ice was melting in the car, we gave some fish to the guys who recycled our vailima bottles and sold us some more beer.”

In a short span of time, Sebastian and Adrian had already mapped out where the most economical places were to buy your beers.

“Yeah I liked the Vailima, especially the pure,” said Sebastian. “We found some export lager on the south side. It was like 6.7 percent stuff. We found that the beer in the south side was a lot cheaper than here in town, probably to the difference of a dollar something.”

The young New Zealanders were leaving for windy Wellington that same day and they said they would definitely return, especially because finding the different fish species was quite exciting.

“The fish we caught was totally different to what you would catch in New Zealand, like we would catch the fish and then look at it trying to figure out what it is, it’s pretty exciting,” said Sebastian. 

“I’d definitely recommend this place, especially if you’re looking for a relaxing, peaceful place to visit. The people here are real nice and the beaches and that are really nice too.”

By Elizabeth Ah-Hi 13 February 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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