Talofa from PARADISE: Happy New Year! A bit late you say? Maybe I’m just early. The truth is, as I took pen to hand (meaning that I sat down, once again, at my trusty old Mac SE) to write this letter to you, I looked at my last letter, and noticed that it was September of 1995 - so it is a New Year! Time really does fly by very fast for us and in a few months Sieni, Mika and I will celebrate our seventh year in Samoa - our adopted country. Seven Woooonderful years! You might be interested to know that we received more mail (and a lot of faxes) from Coco Nuts who received our last news letter than ever before. It is always a lot of fun to hear from you! So, I hope you enjoy this issue and that you write or fax me and tell me what you think. .......... Afa

PROGRESS IN SAMOA: An Oxymoron? Decide for yourself! Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news. The big Marriott Hotel project that I wrote about in my last newsletter looks like it has ground to a halt and is now only a "MAYBE" in the VERY distant future. On the other hand, the Mac Donalds in Apia has actually opened for business. At least that is what I am told. I haven’t seen it myself. The truth of the matter is that I haven’t been to Apia in about six months, even though it is only about 15 miles from Coconuts. I can’t even remember the last time that I drove a car! I used to laugh at Mika, because he only got to Apia about once a year. But at least he has an excuse - he doesn’t know how to drive. I find that I only get past the entrance to Coconuts about once a month - and then only to walk into the village. I think I stopped going to Apia when they installed their first traffic signal - about three years ago. GOOD MOVE!!! For better or worse, you can now find us on the net. Our URL is http://www.interwebinc.com/samoa/hotels/coconuts.html

NEWS FROM OUR COCO NUTS : Here’s just a few of the letters we received following our last newsletter: It’s nice that you send the coco news nuts all the way to Sweden... I really like to read it. I never forget the week on Samoa. Maybe I come back next year ... Catarina Harrysson. We are quite shocked by the idea to see Mac Donalds or a big hotel opening in Samoa... You can’t stop so called progress -no-where ... western societies also get more and more crazy ... But we try to resist. .. hopefully we may “return to paradise” ... Unsel Beckenkamp, Germany. You have the best concierge in Samoa. I dropped lipstick on my white mink - - you had it cleaned before dinner... R.W. Florida, USA. Thank you for the latest newsletter. I had a really good laugh. When I show it to my friends they don’t get it. I know, you had to be there... Rick and Kathy Babuin, Canada. ... thank you for the last issue of Coco Nuts! It brought back wonderful memories of our honeymoon at your resort... We dream of coming back for a visit and we will! ... Chris & Lisa Raders, USA. ... thank all of your staff for their warm and courteous service. I hope they don’t ever get dollars in their eyes. Their simplicity of life at present is a lesson to us all. ..Beryl Aspinall, New Zealand.

COCONUTS "STAYS FAMOUS" I hope you enjoy the enclosed article by Claire Colvin from the London Sunday Express. We have been seeing quite a few guests from the U.K. lately. Thanks Claire!

HOTEL NEWS : The REALLY BIG NEWS is that Afa and Sieni have decided to "retire" from the front lines and, we are happy to announce, that Ned Brown has joined us as the new General Manager of Coconuts. Ned is no stranger to the Resort business, with over 12 years in the industry, most recently as Assistant General Manager of the Ilikai Hotel - a 800 room resort complex in Honolulu. Before that he was Assistant Manager of the Halekulani Hotel in Honolulu and the Sheraton in La Jolla California. Ned also holds a Masters Degree from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. Welcome to Paradise, Ned! You might be interested to know that Ned came to us looking for a "hands on" experience. That means that Sieni and I get to take our hands off EVERYTHING! Well, almost everything. You see, the other big news is that we have just finished building a HUGE, GECKO shaped swimming pool. The Samoans call it a Mo’o. Recent guests Jurgen and Caroline tell us that it would be a Samoan Eidechse in German. What does a Gecko have to do with Coconuts, you ask? Well, as local legend would have it, thousands of years ago the gecko lived in the sea. While swimming near the shore one day, the gecko spots a beautiful Samoan maiden by the name of Sina. It was love at first sight and the gecko immediately crawled on shore to ask for Sina’s hand in marriage. But alas, Sina’s parents, being the conservative type, did not approve of their daughter marrying a gecko (HOW RUDE!) So, the gecko, heartbroken at not being able to marry his love, died right there on the spot. Sina dutifully buried him in the village, and in that very place grew the first coconut tree in Samoa! And now you know why we have a Gecko pool at Coconuts. As I said Sieni and I will take our hands off almost everything. But, the new pool has a swim-up bar and we plan to keep our hands on the bar and on one of Mika’s perfect Maitai’s. Mika is so excited about the new bar in the pool that he is seriously thinking about going back to work - as a bartender. Maybe after he finishes creating his new drink, the Gecko Special. He has been working on it for weeks now, but insists that it isn’t quite perfect yet. Such dedication - and very tough work, but someone has to do it.

TOFA SOIFUA: Time to shut down my Mac, and join Roger & Gayle for a snorkel trip. They were SCUBA diving the other day at "The Boulders", and reported that they were joined on their dive by a school of Dolphins, including a little Dolphin "pup". I’m looking forward to swimming with my first Dolphin. Tonight, on the Palm Terrace, the band will start playing, one of the men from the village will blow the conch shell to signal the fire-knife dancer to light the beach torches, and another "sunset ceremony" will take place. Indeed, dear friends, we are very blessed. Only one thing is lacking - and that is sharing Paradise with YOU! Please join us soon. Love from all of us here at COCONUTS to all of you COCO NUTS and would-be COCO NUTS!