What’s your idea of true, no-room-for-improvement heaven? For me, it’s waking to the sounds of gentle waves under a beach fale – a small thatched bungalow on stilts, open to the elements. Or, more specifically, it’s stepping out of that fale and straight onto the sands of Vavau Beach, lapped by one of Samoa’s many tropical lagoons, and devouring pineapple slices for breakfast before snorkelling in an aquamarine ocean trench. Is that so much to ask?
For more than two years, it has been. Following a firm closure as the pandemic darted around the globe – punctuated by a short-lived travel corridor with New Zealand – my dream cluster of Pacific islands are reopening to Britons on 1 August for the first time in 28 months. My desperate wait for Samoa to roll out the welcome mat is a familiar tale: it’s the place I’d planned a big adventure to in 2020, foiled by events known all too well. It should have been a research trip to meet local artists keeping the ancient tradition of tatau alive. Tatau, or tattooing as it’s come to be known across the world, originates in Samoa, which has archivists, curators and renowned artists I was ready and raring to meet.
