Halfway through our Pacific odyssey and we were heading to Samoa!  Ever since Rob and I started dating, he had been waxing lyrical about how wonderful Samoa was; this was based on his past experiences of exploring the country whenever he dropped off cargo in Apia during his days working as an officer on the container ships.  I was really looking forward to experiencing the culture for myself, after all, seeing is believing!  So 27 June saw us saying Au Revoir to French Polynesia after three months of cruising, and setting sail for Samoa.  We were going to stop at the Northern Cook Islands for a few days but after some research and us seeing how expensive it had become to go there, a group decision was taken to head straight for Samoa (formerly Western Samoa and not to be confused with American Samoa!).  After an uneventful nine day sail, with only a few days of bad weather and rough seas, we arrived in capital Apia, on the island of Upolu on 7 July.  Although we were still technically in the Western Hemisphere (we hadn’t yet crossed the geographical international dateline) Samoa has a time zone of GMT+13 so we essentially lost a day of our lives upon arrival.  And for personal reasons, it wasn’t a problem not to have 6 July!  Bear with us, we have a lot to write about Samoa!

It took us an age to clear customs after mooring in the marina just outside town, but as soon as we were stamped in, Rob and I practically ran into town.  First it was great to get off the boat and use our legs properly again, but more importantly, we were desperate to secure tickets for the historic rugby match between the All Blacks and Samoa scheduled for the next day.  The whole island was in a state of such excitement; it was the first time in history that the All Blacks set foot on Samoan soil to play a game.  As we arrived at the shop selling tickets we saw it was already closed but after knocking on the door a very friendly girl opened for us and let us in… and yes, they still had a few tickets for sale!  The morning of 8 July had us awake early for a stroll into town before heading to the stadium early to get a good spot (we only bought general admission tickets so no reserved seating).  On our walk, the police band came trumpeting past us, stopped in front of the government buildings and played the National Anthem.  And while this happened, every single car on the main road stopped in their tracks, engines were turned off and paid respect to the anthem!  Only after the police band had continued on their march did the cars and busses resume their journeys.  At the stadium, we were almost first in line at the turnstiles, and got a seated spot right in front of the fence so we had a good view of the try line.  The teams ran out to rapturous applause, sang the anthems and with much anticipation, the Manu Samoa in blue faced off against the All Blacks in the first challenge, the Haka’s!  Watching the Haka on TV is much more intimidating, seeing the aggression of the players up close on the screen, but watching it live isn’t as spine-chilling; with the noise of the crowd shouting and jeering, we could hardly hear the chants.  In the end, despite our support, Samoa lost the game, but with the way the public behaved we would have thought their beloved Manu team had just won the World Cup.  It was a great atmosphere and what a way to experience my first rugby match!  After feasting on a roadside barbeque of meat and salad, we headed back to the government buildings that evening and enjoyed watching live music as well as a spectacular fire dancing show.  A great end to a great day!

The next day we were lucky enough to catch a free tour at the tourism office where they have set up a traditional Samoan cultural village.  We saw demonstrations of tapa cloth making, Samoan dance, had a traditional meal of cooked green banana, bread fruit and taro leaves (similar to spinach) in coconut cream.  At this point I had only heard of the traditional meal of “oka”, raw fish marinated in coconut cream, and was looking forward to sampling it at some stage.  We also saw traditional tattoo artists at work – what a brutal but highly respected art form in Samoan culture.  Getting a full body tattoo is a rite of passage and comes with a lot of responsibility in their society.  We had to be extremely quiet when entering their domain, and couldn’t move in the tattoo artists’ peripheral vision lest they get distracted and make a permanent mistake.  The poor men (and sometimes women) enduring the tattoo have an individual dedicated to keeping them comfortable, either by fanning their face or by simply placing a hand on their body to have a comforting human touch during the painful process.

A couple of days later, Rob and I did what we do best; we took a long walk!  Our strudge took us out of town to a place called Papaseea sliding rocks where rocks have been eroded smooth with cascading water to form a water slide into rock pools below.  We thought the water level was a bit low for a slide and just wallowed a bit in the pools but after seeing a local guy slide we both decided to give it a try.  Once was enough and I won’t share the video my dear partner decided to take of me!  The bum took a pounding on the rocks and a skew landing meant a big bruise the next day when we set out for another long walk; this time up the other side of the mountain to the Robert Louis Stevenson house.  Set on 300 acres of beautifully manicured gardens, the mansion has been converted into a museum, but aside from learning that the author penned quite a few more books than originally thought, we didn’t feel the tour was worth it.  That afternoon we walked to the Palolo Deep Marine Reserve for some snorkelling.  Heading out to the reserve area near the harbour, we had a tough time swimming through the kelp forest near the shore, but once through we had a good couple of hours in the water.  Sunday was a quiet day in town as they locals are very religious and take their day of rest quite seriously so we just had a stroll having a look at the various war monuments.

After the weekend, we wanted to take a local bus to the South East side of the island, but the bus service was intermittent and wouldn’t allow us enough time to explore.  So we negotiated with a taxi driver to take us around.  We first headed to Piula cave pool which is a natural freshwater spring right next to the ocean.  There after we had a very scenic drive to a white sandy beach for a quick stop.  On our way we passed a couple of villages that had been wiped out entirely by the 2009 tsunami and the community was busy with the slow process of rebuilding.  The highlight of the day though was stopping at To Sua ocean trench, a giant swimming hole formed by an ancient lava tube.  We had to climb down a precariously slippery ladder onto a wooden platform to enter the trench, and jump off the platform into the water.  We had a good swim here feeling the surge of the current from the ocean.  On our way back into town we stopped at a 100m waterfall but the weather was a bit miserable and misty so we couldn’t get a great view of the gorge.

We had a couple of quiet days strolling around town and taking advantage of the roadside barbeques!  Both of us loving braai meat, it was a real treat to have food cooked on an open fire and we took full advantage.  Our roadside meals often consisted of chicken, lamb rib, lamb or pork sausage, taro and some form of freshly made salad.  All for a steal of less than ZAR50 depending on the exchange rate!  We also had the opportunity of tasting the traditional meal of “oka”, which was absolutely delicious.  But even better was “puka”, yellow fin tuna marinated in a sauce of ginger and soy sauce.  Best sushi ever.

Our final outing was a bus trip across to the North side of Upolu to catch a boat across to Manono Island.  After an hour bus journey on hard wooden benches, bumpy roads and racing at breakneck speeds, we were grateful to arrive at the wharf unscathed.  We haggled with a boat driver to take us across, and were joined by a school teacher who lives on the island and teaches at one of the primary schools.  We found out later that we actually paid for her fare across the channel, so she kindly invited us to visit her school.  Being too polite to refuse, we accompanied her only to find out she insisted we stay for coffee.  So after being introduced to the kids as distinguished guests from South Africa, we were treated to a song and dance performance, including the Haka, by 105 school children, followed by coffee and crackers.  There were only three teachers sharing the teaching responsibility for the whole school.  We left them with a promise to join the teachers for lunch, and took a stroll.  No dogs, no cars, just a simple footpath around the circumference of the island.  It was a very uplifting day for us, to be welcomed with open arms into the community, and to share in a very small snippet of their everyday life.

We really enjoyed our time in Samoa.  The people are super friendly, the island is beautifully lush and we felt welcomed wherever we went.  It is a very happy culture of peace and respect for others.  For example, most of the housing is in the style of a traditional fale which is a floor and a thatch roof with supporting wooden beams, no walls.  The living, sleeping and kitchen areas are all exposed so you drive around and see people in their living rooms with their flat screen TVs or stereo systems.  However there is minimal theft as there is a good sense of community watchfulness.  Any person caught committing a crime is hauled in front of the village chief and punishment is then determined based on the crime.  Our neighbourhood watches could learn a lot!

It was with mixed emotions that we left the marina on 17 Jul to start making our way to Tonga.  We both felt we could have spent more time in the territory, and the second island making up the country definitely held a lot of potential for more exploration.  Samoa definitely has a special place in our bank of memories!