When does a six week working holiday turn into an unforgettable year of your life? When a pandemic hits, and cancels your flight out of Samoa.

For Cristina Martinez and Manuel Marusso, that is exactly what happened. In February 2020 they landed on Samoan soil for a volunteering and relaxation stint at Matareva Beach Fales, and four days before their fight back to New Zealand, Samoa shut down its borders.

Nearly a year later, the two count themselves blessed to have been “stranded” in paradise, and are in no rush to get back to their native Spain and Argentina.

“My dad just says don’t move, stay there. It’s the best place to be,” Ms. Martinez said. “My mum, my friends tell me we are in paradise.

“Sometimes I freak out that I need to work and go back to normal life. But then Manu says we should enjoy the moment. The people we have met and everything we have learned, that experience has been one of the best of my life.”

Ms. Martinez and Mr. Marusso had just wrapped up a season as cherry pickers when they booked their ticket to Samoa. They wanted a warm holiday with an experience, before they set off on a roadie around New Zealand.

That road-trip never happened. Their car, packed to the brim and ready for their trip is now sold, and both of their visas have expired. But there are no regrets here, the couple says.

At Matareva Beach Fales they cook, clean, take bookings and run the bar. They have become friends with the regular guests and a part of the family that runs the popular resort. Now their idea of a holiday is to visit Apia for a taste of town.

“We live in paradise,” Mr. Marusso said. “We wake up every day on the beach, we surf every day. When is high tide and when is low tide, that is our main problem.”

 “It has been amazing all the things we have enjoyed while living here. The pace of our life has changed so much. We enjoy little things like sunset on the ocean every day,” Ms. Martinez added.

“I see how the sun changes during the year because it is the first time in my life I am in the same place for a whole year where I see the sun setting above the ocean.

“We got used to the sound of the waves, and once when we went to Apia and spent a night there at three in the morning we woke up and it was so quiet, that I thought what happened,” she laughed.

They said life in Samoa has taught them to go with the flow, and not stress as their plans changed over the course of the year. They have also grown to appreciate the Samoan way of helping one another, Mr. Marusso said. 

Ms. Martinez even has time to complete her Bachelors in Primary education online during the quieter periods, to add to her early childhood education qualification. She also volunteered part time at the Brilliant Star Montessori School because she missed teaching.

The two met in a fairly quintessential way for young nomads. They were both in a park in the small town of Emerald in Queensland slacklining when they met (slacklining is a form of tightrope walking, with a lot less height).

It’s a town of just 14,119 people. But somehow they were both sent there when they wanted to extend their working holiday visa.

Since then they travelled further around Australia together, and even made it to each other’s home countries to meet their respective families.

Despite their idyllic lives in Samoa, both volunteers stress about how their loved ones are faring back home.

Ms. Martinez said it can be hard, knowing her family members are locked in their homes unable to visit and comfort each other during these times. 

“I have had some moments worrying about family. They were struggling and that was hard, that was a moment I thought I should go back.

“I feel like I’m in a bubble. Every time I talk to them I feel like I am in another world. I can’t imagine how it feels to use a mask every day, to be locked down at home.”

But the clock is ticking on their stay here, with Immigration unable to extend their visitor visa any longer. They have to decide how to find a way to stay, or to continue their grand travel plans in a new country. 

“We are happy here but we need to speak with the Government of Samoa. We are on a visitor visa so we can’t work, but they gave us an ultimatum that in June they cannot extend our visitor visa. If we want to stay we have to look for a work sponsor.

“Volunteering is working well, but then in June we’ll have to decide what we’ll do. We really like Samoa, we like the lifestyle, the people, the options that you have here. Who knows, maybe an opportunity will come up and we can stay longer.”