March 2, 2026
Got to have a full circle moment tonight! When we went to Upie Resort in Solomon Islands we met Mollie Smith, the school teacher there on the island for the owner's children. We loved chatting with her at dinners and when we ran into her on the island. We got to dive with Mollie on our last scuba outing. She has since completed her 2 year stint at Upie and now is back teaching in Tauranga, NZ. Mollie is British, but has lived in NZ, with her family about 11 years. It was great to catch up - we all loved Upie soo much! I invited Mollie to join us to see the glow worms, something she had never done and we had such a nice night! She picked us up at the Port and we had a yummy Italian dinner first at Alpino Mount Mauganui and then lots of laughs kayaking the Wairoa River at Waimarino Adventure Park.
Above and a couple of the better photos below from operators website and fellow residents who joined us. It was so dark none of mine are that good. I did capture Bosco, Mollie, Kimberly & myself in our goofy gear. Turns out glow worms are actually a fungus gnat larva used to catch prey into sticky silk threads in caves ans damp environments. Which is what I got brushing against my face when were entered the grove area to float and observe the big display of glow worms! Yuke! But kinda cool too!
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I really enjoyed my first trip to Thailand! On our final morning here we went to try breakfast at this spot, down the road, we had been hearing rave reviews on, King Of Bread . The hype was correct, the breakfast was delicious and they had some unique choices. I had eggs benedict on a croissant, in lieu of the standard english muffin and Bosco had it on Milk Bread, which was equally tasty.
We love having authentic experiences with locals to really get a chance to see how they live and thrive in the Ports we visit. So when I found a cooking class, by a local woman offered in her home, we were excited to book. Um ( our teacher) picked us and brought us back to our hotel along with the family of 4 from Sydney, Australia, that had also signed up for this afternoon class. Um's house, which has a lovely open air kitchen, garden and dining area, was about a 30 minute drive and turned out to be on the beach, right next to the Grandparent Rocks.
The nightlife scene doesn't really get going till after 11pm and goes till 5 am in the Chaweng section of Koh Samui . We made our way over to the club district, and one of the hot spots called the ArkBar a little past 10pm to have some dinner, while watching the beach fire shows.