can’t believe it, but..... it’s Christmas time once again - our FIFTH in Samoa. Last year we really got into the swing of the holiday spirit with our Egg Nog On The Beach party. This year it’s Egg Nog & Kava On The Beach! We just can’t get enough of the local, lip numbing brew called Kava! Guests this year will receive a personalized, hand painted coconut shell to swill their kava, thanks to LESOA, our talented, resident artist and man of all seasons. New Years Eve will see a repeat of last years very funny "break open the Pinada" party. We have shamelessly "borrowed" from the Mexican tradition of stuffing a paper mache figurine with candies and other goodies. Except this year, LESOA is going to make a Polynesian Tiki, that some blind-folded, inebriated guest will try to break open, using a large, Samoan machete. Do we know how to have a good time? We will all be here (Afa, Sieni, Mika, Julia, Roger and Gayle) to celebrate the Holidays. Natie will be in Honolulu with his bride, Minnie. But where will you be? If you won’t be with us, then please, dear friends, know that you will surely be missed!

Well, how do you like our new look? Don’t worry, we haven’t changed - just the look of our newsletter! We are still the same "eccentric" assemblage that we have always been. But, I did get a new toy - some new software, Microsoft Word 6.0, which came with all of this fancy stuff already "built-in" - so I thought I would play with it ......... Afa

Complimentary Upgrades

Coco Nuts Come Home! As we go into our third year, we have more and more guests returning to Coconuts, and we are just DELIGHTED! For us, it is really like seeing old friends. To say "thank you" and "welcome home", we are happy to announce a special program for guests returning to Coconuts. Just let us know your travel plans, and when you check-in you will receive a complimentary upgrade, if we have the space available. So, if you book into a Deluxe, Garden View room we will upgrade you one level to an Ocean View room at no extra cost.

I am very happy to report that our latest accommodation, our TWO BEDROOM DELUXE BEACHFRONT FALE (bungalow) opened as scheduled in August and it is truly magnificent! The outdoor bathroom, with it’s lava rock waterfall and fern grotto pool, is just spectacular. What’s more, LESOA has painted two beautiful murals on the walls depicting scenes from Samoan life and painted Samoan symbols around the entire fale. A little known secret is that the mini-bar in all of our Beachfront Fales is complimentary - another first for Samoa!

Here’s some very exciting news for all of you Beach Club Members. Now, I’ll bet you’re asking yourself "Am I a Beach Club Member?" Well, those of you who stayed with us in the "early days" received a Beach Club card. A practice which, I am sorry to say, dropped by the wayside as we started to get busy. So, now it’s time to put the Beach Club back into operation. All past hotel guests are automatically Beach Club Members. There is nothing more that you have to do. Now, what does that mean to you? Not too much, unless and until you plan to come back to Paradise. Then, for starters, you will receive a complimentary upgrade of one level in accommodations, space available. You will also receive a 20% discount in our Gift Shop simply by showing your Beach Club card - which we will have waiting for you when you check-in. There will also be monthly specials! To find out about our Beach Club specials, just call or fax us and let us know your travel plans and we will tell you what we have for you. It’s that simple! We truly value your support and want to do everything that we can to make it easy for you to come back and see us again!

From time to time I like to share with you some of the wonderful things (I’m sure you’re smart enough to know that I’m not going to share terrible things) that people are saying about us. Even though it may seem like we are getting well known, I can assure you that Coconuts is still one of the Travel Industry’s best kept secrets and not in danger of being overrun with tour

buses - HOW RUDE! We hope you enjoy the enclosed article, excerpted from "Tropicalities Travel Newsletter". You might be interested to know that we first found out about this when we received a copy of the newsletter with a note about the Coconuts article. I have a great deal of respect for the publishers of this Newsletter, because they never identified themselves when they were at Coconuts. Needless to say, they received no special treatment from us when they were here. When we wrote to these nice folks to ask permission to include this excerpt, they were kind enough to offer our readers a free copy to peruse and a 50% discount on your first year’s subscription . . just mention that Coconuts sent you! And I still don’t know who was here or what room they stayed in!

The really BIG news is that Roger & Gayle now live at Coconuts - the better to serve you. I think those late night and early morning rides over the mountain on the notorious cross-island road (in the immortal words of Simon Winchester, "a twenty mile drive over an unlit mountain road inhabited after dark almost entirely by pigs") were an added inducement to them moving to Coconuts. So Roger & Gayle are now here full time to share in the fun and sun and to make your watersports experience memorable! As you can see from the Tropicalities write up, Roger really is a gem!

As mentioned elsewhere, we are very happy to see all of our returning guests, who we fondly refer to as Coco Nuts. It was great to welcome back the Bianchini family, Masimo, Christina and little Camilla from Italy. This time they returned with Christina’s sister, Allesandra and family. The little girls, Camilla and Giulia danced with our fiafia group for the two weeks they were here. It was also good to

see Alan Chisholm from Auckland who was among the first to stay at Coconuts and was one of our earliest supporters in New Zealand. But, the record holder is Bob Hooper, who alternates between San Diego and Fiji, and has now returned four times. Keep it up BOB!

Our Fiafia (traditional songs and dances) performed every Saturday night, right on the beach, is fast becoming a legend in the South Pacific. One of the reasons is our fire-knife performers. LESOA, our resident artist, is also a past master in fire-knife dancing and has dutifully passed on his knowledge to his 11 (yes I said eleven) sons and one daughter. Among his children performing at Coconuts are PATI, age 17, who won a competition in Samoa and went on to represent Samoa in an international competition held in Hawaii, and MELANI, who is only 4 years old. I can tell you that MELANI wows the crowd with her "great respect" for the fire but seeming unconcern that the knife she is twirling through the air is razor sharp! So, make sure that your stay at Coconuts includes Saturday night. You won’t want to miss out on Mika’s great food and the wonderful show put on by the young men and women of the surrounding villages.

Time to say good-bye and to tell you, once again, how much we value your friendship and look forward to seeing you in Paradise. All of us at Coconuts wish you a wonderful, prosperous, healthy and happy NEW YEAR. May God be with you all!

Afa (Barry ) Sieni (Jennifer) Mika (Mike) Julia (Julia)) Roger & Gayle