South Island Costal Trail and Snorkelling….

We were late with our blog yesterday and we are early with this one, but things will start getting busy so I decided to send it now. 
After the wild hike up to the Robert Louis Stevenson grave, we went home bushed and tired, then cleaned up and went on another hike with the Stonehockers and Goodlets. This was the coastal trail on the south side of Upolu. We drove over the mountain, then down a dirt road to the trail head. It is a sheer lava cliff that the ocean pounds all day every day. 

These strange trees grow up to the edge of the cliffs. 

Here it has washed away even the rock. That is Gramma and Elder Goodlet from a distance.   

Here is looking back the other way.

The ocean is very powerful. 

Here is the lava flow. 

That is not blue sky, that is the ocean below. 

This beautiful picture is our new wallpaper on the desktop. 

Here is a look at the trail (Sister Stonehocker on the right) and some more rock islands.   

Here is the group less me, yes it was raining again on this hike. 

After going to the office the next morning and finding no internet to get our work done and our home internet not working very well, we went to the South side of the island again and went snorkelling with the Goodlets and Stonehockers. Here is my beautiful bride at a beautiful beach, she is really getting into those lava-lava’s. 

Having a CPAP machine makes me very good at adjusting swimming masks.  

That’s me, this little lagoon was full of pretty coral and fish to see.   

Gramma snorkeled, but she rather look for sea things on the beach. You may have seen her collection on instagram.

She came out a little early after sucking some sea water (she try to pick a shell off the bottom a submerged her breathing pipe. 

Gramma can’t go anywhere without a bird picture. 

These last pictures are of the beach.   

It was a fun afternoon. Now we have to work extra hard to get ready for our classes next week and the new ones we will be starting. School starts back up Monday. We still look at each other once in a while and say, “Can you believe we are here”? We are looking forward for more interesting things, not just the fun activities, but the relationships we are building with the Samoan people and our fellow missionaries. We hope will make a difference, helping teachers prepare their students for the future. A full-time mission is a spiritual experience. The Gospel is true, tofa soifua.

Elder and Sister Hammond