Flight to LA
I am never not taking photos out the window whenever I fly/travel.
Pics from my iPhone camera roll December 7, 2021.
The first taste of travel
I’m a pisces, and I guess one of the traits my star sign is known for is that pisces can sometimes be escapists. I suppose in this way, I am in constant need of a break, a vacation, a sort of temporary sanctum to let my soul rest and reset.
Two years of this pandemic had me parched… thirsty… starving for time and space away. Even though I live in a beautiful paradise, the border lockdown made me feel like there was this invisible cage around the island suddenly and I couldn’t stretch my wings. My rock fever was high.
When my husband and I booked flights back in September for a December trip, the flights weren’t even confirmed, and it wasn’t exactly an enjoyable process because we were so anxious that we were spending all this money (the costs of travel are still outrageously expensive) and we wouldn’t even be able to go. Thankfully, things worked out.
Just the act of driving up to the Pago Pago International Airport felt like an adventure. Standing in line with our packed bags to check in for our flight felt like we had a golden ticket (we later realized we could have stood in the shorter first class line because my husband was a Pualani Gold member, which we did end up doing but after an almost two hour wait). The flight was delayed, but that’s okay because it meant we were still in travel mode, and it was exhilarating. The plane arrived and we eagerly walked the tarmac with our bags heavy and our spirits light.
We sanitized our seats, stowed our bags, and buckled up for the getaway we’ve been craving. Airplane food tasted better than it had in years, and Ian and I imbibed on the complementary hawaiian rum punch to celebrate.
I swallowed in the air of excitement and tasted color more vividly… I was rejuvenated.
And this was just the first leg of our flight/layover through Hawaii!
Back from a long vacation (a journal entry)
Hello and Taaaaalofa!
I’m back in American Samoa now, waiting out my government mandated quarantine at the Fatu O Aiga quarantine facility. It’s strange not being allowed to go outside really and being in a “real” lockdown. I’m currently on day 12 of 14, and I’ve tested negative on every antigen, PCR, and nasopharyngeal covid test I’ve taken over the past two months, which is wild!
And it’s been two months since I last came on here because whewww-I-really-needed-that-vacation.
I feel like I’m in some sort of third life crisis or something because I hadn’t really been feeling myself lately. I think I’m feeling… old/older?? Like, I want to take naps constantly and just do nothing a lot more often now. I don’t know, maybe it’s the covid fatigue but I’ve been so lazy that I couldn’t even get on here to share an update or a photo or two.
Vacation has healed me in some ways though. I’ve been reconnecting with analog journaling (travel journaling always makes me feel so nostalgic!) and it’s been lovely to be so excited by new stationery and scrapbooking journal spreads — using my hands and imagination, and mostly enjoying the process more than the final result. I’ve truly truly missed it.
But yeah — today I finally uploaded most of the photos off my camera’s memory cards… Hmm, see, that’s how lazy I’ve been! I hadn’t even off-loaded my memory cards until now from my trip and it’s two weeks after I’ve come back from said trip. I took quite a few photos as usual, but it reminded me that I need to put them somewhere so I don’t turn into one of those people that takes a zillion photos and does nothing with them (literally, everyone with a smartphone these days). So over the next days and weeks and maybe months I’ll slowly share photo journals from this very lovely, very needed vacation.
My little frazzled brain has been in hiding so if what I share looks/sounds like gibberish, oops sorry — please bear with me!
If you’re reading this, and made it this far. Thanks for being here.
xo, Nerelle
Photo Journal: South to North Island, New Zealand
Sharing another long forgotten photo journal recovered from my drafts folder.
I’m slowly clearing that out, and so please don’t mind me daydreaming about these travel throwbacks.
Oh, the wanderlust… I feel it coming.
This was from my late 2016, early 2017 trip to Aotearoa… New Zealand.
We had stayed in Auckland for the first few days, where we spent Christmas with Ian’s parents in this adorable AirBnB, and then the next few days in Queenstown to count down to the New Year with friends.
This photo journal chronicles a small part of the road trip that Ian and I took for the next week from the South Island up to the North Island.
Ian bumped us up to first class on the ferry over because he wanted to make sure I was comfortable since he knows I get seasick and it was stormy out on the water.
We had a blast driving all around the beautiful country side.
We had an epic car rental situation, which we basically got for FREE with the cost of our ferry free included too, as long as we got it up to their North Island branch within 5 days.
It was a lot of driving though, with so much to see! We mostly stopped at any lakes we could find, cute cafes, lavender fields, and even stopped at a glacial river next to a bridge.
On our way up to the surf town of Raglan, we visited Rotorua, which is a popular destination for the natural hot springs. I got in touch with a childhood friend who was living there and working at the Polynesian Spa. She was super kind to hook us up with a free visit to the hot springs! It smelled like farts because of all the sulfur in the natural springs, but it was a really cool experience!
We dropped off the rental car in Auckland and drove up the rest of the way to Raglan with Ian’s parents. I don’t think I posted those photos of Raglan either, so I’m gonna search through my photos on my drive and see if I can pull it up to share here.
Since the recent loss of my external hard drive (which contained all my photos and videos from the last few years), I’m more motivated to post what photos I do have on my blog, so I can always look back at some of my favorite memories.
xo, Nerelle
Photo Journal: Couples Camping Trip
Found this in my drafts folder… a photo journal of camping with my husband and our friends, Traci and Ano, back in May 2021. I think we timed this camp trip right on time for me and Ian’s anniversary weekend.
Many thanks to the Gurr family for always being so warm and allowing us to camp at your beach.
The fresh water stream that leads to the ocean.
Sabrina also came for the day to hang out with us.
We were looking for freshwater eel in the stream, and set up some traps, but we didn’t catch any this time around.
We spent a few hours in the morning snorkeling and spearfishing at the beach. I tested out my new pole spear and didn’t get so lucky, but everyone else caught something for lunch. Here’s Ian de-scaling a malau (red snapper) he caught.
With no cell service out here, we spent our weekend offline hanging out, snorkeling, fishing, playing suipi, eating good food, reading, and hanging around the fire we set up on the beach.
I love waking up early on camp trips — right before the sun rises — and soaking up the serenity of the moving water, birds chirping in the distance, and wind rustling through the trees.
Happy sleepy faces. I wake Ian up whenever the sunrise starts so he can watch it with me. Then he’ll usually knock out right after for another nap haha.
Me and this cutie puppers.
Traci and Ano spearfishing.
Our tents. Traci and Ano’s tent is the red and white one; they’re fully set up with an air bed! Ian and I keep it pretty basic with our yellow and black tent; using camping mats, and stuffing our clothes into pillowcases haha.
Ultimate relaxation.
Going back to the stream the next morning to check on the eel traps and take a cold dip.
Homeward bound in the back of Ano’s truck. I was getting car sick in the truck so I jumped in the back in case I needed to barf lol, but the fresh air in my face was just what I needed.
Looking back at these have me wanting to go on another camp trip real soon!
Plus, here’s an instagram reel I put together from this trip!
xo, Nerelle
Dive Log: Amalau Bay (Left side)
DATE: Saturday, July 3, 2021
SITE: Amalau Bay, American Samoa
DIVE BUDDIES: Ian, Lilian, Christian
START PRESSURE: 2500 psi
END PRESSURE: 800 psi
Some of the many corals we saw at Amalau Bay. All of these incredible shots by Ian.
MAX DEPTH: 63 feet
VISIBILITY: ~60 feet
AMALAU BAY: ONE OF THE BEST DIVES IN AMERICAN SAMOA
The last time I dove at Amalau Bay was back in 2018 (see dive log here), on the right side of the bay. For this dive, we dove on the left side of the bay. I observed a lot of really beautiful things: giant Porites coral (probably one of the largest I’ve seen in all of Tutuila), plentiful fish (mostly smaller fish though), giant clams, thriving coral reef ecosystem with corals growing on top of each other, a spongy brown anemone that looks like coral at first until you touch it and it turns white and feels very soft and squishy, huge plate corals, very cool and interesting reef structures about 60 feet deep that go all the way up to about 20 feet (perfect for snorkelers), sandy bottom, a school of tiiiiny fish (I thought it was just ocean dust at first and then I noticed they all moved together in rhythm), also some dead coral, but not from bleaching.
TOTAL TIME: 63 minutes
WATER TEMP: 84 F
WEATHER: 2-3 ft waves, scattered clouds, 5mph winds NE
All original photos taken by Nerelle and Ian Moffitt
