Samoa - Pacific

Typical Fale

Susan lunching in a Fale

I've got a luverly bunch of coconuts

Papapapaitai Falls

Plum Pudding Rock

Susan on the Beach

Hi Guys,

Apia - Samoa 13 March 2011

(Latitude: 13 45’South   Longitude: 172 06’ West)

(Time +13 GMT)

Today we visited Samoa, a curious route for P & O as we visited Pago Pago, the island next door on the 21^st February, several weeks ago. This area seems to be in never never land as sailing west across the International date line leads to a lost day and sailing east to Samoa leads to a gain of an extra day, very curious. We actually thread the eye of a needle twice at this location that is extremely remote from all major land masses.

Apia, Samoa is hot and humid and the people are great, but it is Sunday and these pious people really have a day of rest and worship. No alcohol sold, no swimming, only eating, sleeping and compulsory worship twice during the day. Although these Polynesian islands are quite different, we are finding a commonality with their cultures with their respect for Sunday and their conservative clothing, a lava lava or wrap around sarong.

We drive eastward along the coast to Plum Pudding Rock. Our guide, Tiare, was mystified by the description of this Plum Pudding shaped rock and we concluded that whatever the Samoan do for Christmas, they do not have plum pudding.

 We drive through the middle of the island passed dwellings called fale that looked like temporary shelters. Roofs on poles with a raised floor and what looked like a verandah. Except for the refrigerator in the middle of the dwelling, there are few possessions as they sleep on matting on the raised floor, privacy is provided by venetian blinds. Burglary does not seem to be a problem. Sometimes there appear to be several of these huts as they are used for different functions.

We arrive on the South shore at a gorgeous beach but unfortunately to get into water deep enough to swim one must stagger across coral shingle which does a real number on your feet. The water is warm and the beach is golden and balmy.

Lunch is served from a beach buffet and we return to our own private fale on the beach with taro, breadfruit and chunks of suckling pig. The taro and breadfruit is flavored by dipping into fresh cooked coconut cream and salad included pawpaw and chunks of coconut. Susan determined that she would like to replicate this when she gets back to South Africa for lunch. Roy will be building the fale.

All too soon it is time to return to the ship, however, we go via the Papapapaitai waterfall which is several hundred feet high. This is one waterfall of many on this very lush island with a rainfall of 114 ins/year. We visit a village where we are shown how to open coconuts, scrap the meat and squeeze the coconut cream. Roy quickly became involved and completes all the tasks.

Although everything was closed, the post office had a table quayside to dispense stamps and collect postcards. We picked up a few items from the vendors and again there was little selection in tee shirts less than 6X but after shorting through, I found one that was “”small” at only XL.

We sail away from Samoa to Christmas Island, which we should be able to see from afar as it glows in the dark (ha ha). This was the place where Britain did all of its thermonuclear experiments in1957.

We get a call from the security officer to tell us that we have permission for Ash and Heather to come visit the ship, more on that later.

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On the island there is one of the largest coconut plantations in the Pacific and the output goes to the Body Shop. The chocolate pods that are grown on the island are sold to Lindt in Switzerland

Samoa is about 44 miles by 10 with a population of 183,000 where 40,000 live in Apia. The Samoans are Polynesian, probably the purest of all existing Polynesians, and closely akin to the other islanders of the Central and Eastern Pacific, from the Hawaiians in the north to the Maoris of New Zealand. Polynesians are believed to have inhabited Samoa for at least 2,000 years, but since there wer no written records until Europeans arrived, past history and lore had to be handed down by word of mouth. The first European visit was made in 1722 by the Dutch navigator Roggeveen. The Frenchman Bougainville in 1768 named the Samoans the “Navigator islands” but in 1787 the murder of 11 Frenchmen ended any thoughts of colonization or peaceful settlement for forty years

The Samoan group of Islands lies in the center of the South Pacific, surrounded in a clockwise direction by Tokelau, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji and the Ellice Islands, if that still leave you a little disoriented, they are 2,300 miles SSW of Honolulu, 2,700 miles NE of Sydney. Since 1899, they have been divided into American Samoa with seven islands and the new independent sovereign state of Samoa (formerly Western Samoa) with 9 islands, the dividing line being the meridian of 171  longitude west. Samoa is about the size of Dorset and consists of two main islands, Savai’i and Upolu (we docked at Apia), the two tiny islands of ‘Apolima and Manono – the Bali Ha’I of Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific.

As a preference, it turned out that we were Apia to be in Samoa than in Pago Pago.

Although TV is not available to all parts of the island the Samoans watch Australian news, CNN and New Zealand news. Although they are an independent country their sister country is NZ. Only 7 years ago, Samoa made all education compulsory.