"You have got it right, keep doing it", says English couple

By Soli Wilson 04 April 2019, 12:00AM

English couple, Phil and Sue Carrington from a rural part of England do not like urban areas, so they were spotted savouring the warm waters of Lalomanu Beach Thursday.

The pair were in New Zealand for three months before traveling to Samoa for a week-long getaway.

"Thought we’d come to a tropical island, never been to one before so it’s quite special and never been in a sea as warm as this. That is just amazing," Sue said to the Dear Tourist team.  

"Lots of various tourist things around here. Very beautiful. Wish we could get more into the green."

With that said, Sue and Phil said the most striking thing they found during their drive from Apia was the litter.

"We did notice that there is a lot of litter; that surprised me it really did. It made me think of getting a bag and cleaning it up because it’s too beautiful to have that amount of litter. So many take away plates and plastic cups and yet there’s not a lot of places on route, are there?" asked Sue.

"It seems people just throw it out the window when they’re done which is quite sad really but the thing is the sea line is really clean, you haven’t got things washed up," she added.

"I mean yes of course we get it in England too, no doubt, but when here? It’s so green, so clean, it’s so unnecessary."

Phil summed it up perfectly by saying that the problem all comes down to steering the younger generation into what they are supposed to do instead of throwing it out of the car windows.

"It just comes down to lack of education and not educating them right and not teaching right with children because if one of our grandchildren did it we would tell them no you're going out to pick that back up again.

"I guess from my point of view it comes down to parenting if the parents tell them not to do it as kids, they’ll learn its not acceptable I guess. Make it easier on the villagers, stop it from happening in the first place, there is no hardship," suggested Phil.

"And such an easy fix just tell the kids not to do it, not to throw out the Mac Donald cups. We say in our country that you can always tell how far you are from Mac Donald's because the eating distance is where the rubbish lands and coming out from Apia, we saw the same sort of thing on the side of the roads and its surprising."

Sue is a retired nurse while Phil is a semi-retired truck driver, to which he jokingly said someone had to work to pay for their trip here.

"Everybody has been friendly, they all wave to you when driving past even the little children.

"The villages look beautiful the rural villages up here and another thing are the communal meeting places people seem to congregate a lot they seem to love to sit and chat which is very nice to see, I like that," she said.

She added because of this, some more information boards about the different places would be quite convenient.

"Some more information boards about the area. It’s the first time we’ve been somewhere I think and not know anything about the area and I can’t seem to find details either. 

"I’ve asked the people and you pick up snippets, but I’d really like to know about the local area, what goes on and how people live," she said.

"What do they work at what are the trees that are around and about and what are the birds that are out and about? That would be nice wouldn’t it?" suggested Sue.

The couple told of their adventures to various waterfalls where at one of them Phil slipped and hurt his knee, while Sue laughed and instead of being concerned she said, "Now look what you've done, you got my sarong wet".

Sue told Dear Tourist that Samoa was like an island made for meditating.

"Just sitting here looking, it’s like an island for meditating almost isn’t it. It doesn’t get better than this, I've been to the Mediterranean and I don’t think it gets better than this, so I think it’s gorgeous," said Phil.

"We'd never go into the water in England for as long as this. You’ll freeze. 

"And we’ve got snorkelling things. All those different fishes.  It’s amazing. The fish that we see swimming here are the one that we sell at the shops that we have to go and see, and the aquarium that you have to pay a fortune but they’re just out there, and bigger," he added.

The couple wishes for Samoa to stay true to herself and try its best to not "lose its identity".

"To see somewhere as natural that’s white rare isn’t it, I mean new Zealand is beautiful we’ve spent a lot of time there but its gradually losing itself to the tourists.

"Because we’ve been going back for five years now, and you can imagine that each year there’s another two-three hotels going up in Queenstown, and the reason people want to go see a place is for its unique qualities. This is very unique," told Sue.

"You got it just right. Unspoiled natural charm of the island is enough. I haven’t heard anybody else any other tourist saying there’s anything lacking. So you have got it right. Keep on doing it."

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By Soli Wilson 04 April 2019, 12:00AM

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