Schafer family of 9 before they set sail on their South Pacific family adventure
Founders of the travel agency Cheap Tickets Canada.com and Brigham Young University alumni who live near Victoria, British Columbia are on a yearlong adventure to the South Pacific for the entire year 2013! The best thing about it is that Samoa is on their list of destinations.
Vaimasenu’u Zita Martel, our Managing Director, accepts challenge given by the USS Pearl Harbor Commodore Wallace Lovely
More excitement is in the air for our wonderful and committed team here at the Polynesian Xplorer. Why? Our very own Managing Director and co-founder, Vaimasenu’u Zita Martel, who wears many hats besides the one mentioned above, has been challenged towith her Digicel Segavao crew by the USS Pearl Harbor team on Saturday 8th of June, 2013 at 3 pm. She will be skipper of their longboat while the Commodore of Destroyer Squadron THREE ONE Wallace Lovely will be captain of theirs.
The wonderful and fascinating Vaimasenu’u Zita Martel after the award ceremony
Vaimasenu’u Zita Martel, the Honorary Consul of France in Samoa, who is also co-founder and Managing Director of Polynesian Xplorer and the General Manager of Virgin Cove Resort ,was awarded and decorated with the high ranking President of the Republic of France award “Ordre national du Me`rite (National Ordre of Merit), for distinguished services to France. This making her one of the the 30,000 officer of the order.
The special ceremony was held at the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum on Thursday, 30th of May, 2013 and blessed by Archbishop Alapati Mataeliga. The prestigious President of France Award, was presented by His Excellency Francis Etienne, Ambassador of France to Samoa. Continue reading
Mulifusi, one of our tour guides and Talise, Assistant Product Coordinator with the Drews
We were honoured to have new clients, Joe & Laura Drew here with us on island recently. They enjoyed the hospitality our people showed and thought comfortable being around them; surprisingly with this being their first visit to the country. After Laura took a dizzy turn before taking one of our tours, Polynesian Xplorer staff leapt into action, rushing her to our local hospital, Tupua Tamasese Meaole in Motootua to be seen by the A&E clinic. There was no problem with Laura in the end (other than perhaps the heat and a little over excitement!) however this turn of events left Joe & our tour guide, Mulifusi, lots of time to chat. Continue reading
The 2013 HIBS International Service Team
Polynesian Xplorer is at your service again! Our cheerful and amazing team greeted a school group of 15 students and 3 teachers from the Hutt International Boys’ School in Wellington, the city of “The Hurricanes” on the 20th of April. Every year, HIBS sends a service team of 12-15 students overseas to aid less fortunate communities in foreign countries. They fundraise, seek sponsorship and collect goods to take to a community less fortunate than their own. This year, 2013, with the aid of event managers, Polynesian Xplorer, they are visiting Samoa with an intention to carry out some community work and assist with reconstruction and development work.
Hostess Britta awaiting EU arrivals at our Faleolo Airport office
Our ever dedicated and attentive Polynesian Xplorer events management team were the local event coordinator for two European Union funded conferences successively. Stunning tropical sunny weather welcomed the 50 delegates of the EU to Samoa for the first series of meetings. It was – wait for it as it’s rather long – the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) National Programming Consultative Seminar for the Pacific Region. Following on the heels of that one, tropical showers greeted the second lot of 60 delegates for the ACP Connect Study for the Pacific Region. One of our flagship hotels in Apia, Tanoa Tusitala Hotel, was the venue.
In an event arranged by Polynesian Xplorer, the new Virgin Samoa’s aircraft named Tapu’itea landed in Samoa and was welcomed home after its inaugural flight on Friday. The Polynesian Xplorer team welcomed media and VIP guests with traditional Samoan lei’s and Aana #1 Secondary School students danced and sang on the tarmac to welcome the new craft.
Zita Martel Training in Nanning
Our Managing Director is always on the run – but who would have thought she would spend 5 weeks at the invitation of the Chinese Government and the Chinese Archery Association to go on intensive training and try to qualify for the London Olympics? The Samoa Archery Association sent a small team of three archers, Eddie Chan, Zita Martel and Maureen Epati Tuimalealufano), two of them medalists at the last South Pacific Games in Noumea to do just that, and our own Zita Martel is part of the dream!
Our very own Brynne Eaton Auva’a – who, when working with Polynesian Xplorer, sang the national anthem at the opening of the Judo World Cup in 2010, has just completed an extraordinary journey on board the Gaualofa. Brynne was a member of one of seven Pacific Island crews that sailed a fleet of traditional Polynesian “vaka” – voyaging canoes (equipped with solar powered motors) – across thousands of miles of open ocean. In seven replicas of the ancient sailing vakas, each carrying a crew of 14 to 16 people from more than a dozen island nations (including Fiji, New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Samoa, Vanuatu, Hawaii and Tonga), this young set of navigators set off from New Zealand in April and arrived in California in early August.
Brynne and her fellow wayfinders mapped their way across the vast Pacific in the wake of their ancestors, using the stars, sun, wind, and wildlife as their guides. These young wayfinders are not only reclaiming their heritage as the finest of sailors, but are also becoming the finest of stewards. Drawing on the lessons of their past to propel us all forward, these navigators are charting a bold new course, steering us all toward a sustainable future on earth.
An article published in the Pasadena Star News last week summarized Brynne’s experience here:
For 26-year-old Brynne Eaton-Auva’a of Samoa, one of the crew members of the vaka Gaualofa, the journey has allowed her to learn more about the Polynesian side of her family. She was born and raised in Alberta, Canada, to her Canadian mother and Samoan father.
“It’s been a great huge lesson for me,” Eaton-Auva’a said of the trip called “Te Mana O Te Moana,” or “The Spirit of the Sea.”
“We sail without any fossil fuels. We sail mimicking how our ancestors would have,” she said.
And while the canoes do have propellers, the devices only are meant to help the vessels maneuver harbor waters, she said.
The canoes also are equipped with satellite phones and “all the necessary safety equipment as any modern-sailing vessel would have,” Eaton-Auva’a said.
But the goal “is to try to navigate as much as we can celestially,” she explained, using knowledge of the stars, swells and winds for guidance.
“It’s nice when you’re out there. It distances you from the distractions of the land,” Eaton-Auva’a said
More information is available from the Pacific Voyagers site here. You’ll be able to get a deeper insight into the trials, tribulations and triumphs of this great voyage when the movie, Our Blue Canoe, is released later in 2013. In the meanwhile here’s a teaser.
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