Swimming in the rain
A couple of weeks ago, swimming in the rain with Gabby.
It was nipply cold!
[Filed under happy memories]
DDW Breakfast with Gabs
[August 27, 2021]
After the beach gathering in honor of Gabs’ film mentor, Gabby and I went over to DDW to grab an early breakfast. It was still very early, 20 minutes before they opened, so we hung out on the relatively new seawall and let our minds wander over the turbulent water for a while. At 7am, we helped ourselves in through the unlocked doors, grabbed a menu, put a dollar by the cash register to purchase a newspaper, and seated ourselves. We contemplated our orders and sipped on hot tea and chatted away f
In Loving Memory of Leanne Ferrer
On Friday, August 27, 2021, an intimate gathering was held at Fatu Ma Futi beach in loving memory of Leanne Ferrer. She was an impactful individual who encouraged and gave voice to pasefika peoples through media and film.
I’m glad I got a chance to work with her through my office, but even more than that, I’m glad I got to know of her through the eyes of my best friend Gabby, who was mentored by Leanne in Hawaii. I showed up this morning in support of Gabby, who considered Leanne a sister-aunty. She credits Leanne with propelling her film work since she was 18 years old.
Leanne was cherished by many in Hawai’i, here in American Samoa, and all throughout the Pacific.
Sending love, warmth, and deep condolences to the Ferrer family.
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