Samoa blog Aug 17
Janet and David
Janet and David
Samoa has been an absolute blast. We came here for a couple of days to re-provision, not really expecting much of the place, and have been here for over two weeks. This country is fabulous. The people are really friendly, the weather is great, the shopping is awesome after Tonga, and it is such a luxury being on a marina. We have had such a rich experience here and ironically with blogs when you have time to write them there is not much to say and when there is lots happening there is not much time to write about it.
We upped anchor from Niuatoputapu and headed north. We had to motor some of the first day till a nice breeze came up. It was a pleasant trip, sighting Samoa on our second day. We sailed through the passage between the islands, Savaii and Upolu, then had a rather tiring night trying to get east to Apia and hove-to off the harbour entrance till dawn. We have seen hardly any ships at sea but at dawn off Apia Harbour a large one was heading straight for us. I took the tiller off autopilot and moved out of its way pretty smartly but they had seen us and headed away as well.
Our arrival was fantastic. We’d heard that the marina wasn’t very good; suffering from surge and officious port authorities, and Apia wasn’t much of a place to visit. Wrong on all counts. We were escorted into a lovely marina by a small port boat and who should we see but one of our neighbours from Chaffers Marina in Wellington. The only other boat from Wellington, Distracted, that was up in the Pacific. And another NZ boat Obsession, whom we’d met in Tonga and got to know on the radio. We had a welcoming committee! Distracted hosted drinks that night for us to all catch up and set the tone for the rest of our stay.
The next day we headed to town to check out the provisioning.
It is a half hour walk around the waterfront, and passing the ubiquitous churches. We thought Tonga was littered with churches but Samoa really outdoes them. Every village has at least 5 churches and these are no glorified village halls. They are absolute monuments to God, huge stone edifices some of which would look right at home in medievil England. It finally dawned on me that here in the Pacific, Samoa in this case, it is not a question of whether you are religious or not but which religion you follow. Seemingly every last soul has religion. In town we found large supermarkets, by no means the monstronsities like Pak N Save but much bigger than the corner store variety in Tonga. And the range!! For us it was delectable. Interestingly for a boat here it was rather limited; they clearly hadn’t been to Tonga! We have higher speed internet, not as fast as Wellington, but so much faster than Tonga. Don’t get me wrong about Tonga, The cruising has it hands down over Samoa and that is what we are here for.
In Wellington a Samoan woman David works with from time to time gave him a few contacts here, which he followed up so we had some of them around for a drink, Alberta, Alfred and Rhoda. Alfred and Rhoda adopted us and they became our guides to Samoa. Their hospitality was superb. They gave us a meal of traditional Samoan food, and drove us around both islands.On our first Sunday here we got up at 4.30 and went into town to the local fish mar
ket. It opens 
early so everyone can get their fish for their post-church Sunday lunch. It was a glorious site. You couldn’t have art-directed it better. There are long marble benches where everyone had laid out their wares. The fish were all in lines, lines of blue parrot fish, red mullet, and large crabs with their legs still waving in the air. There were rows of huge fish heads and enormous whole tuna and Wahoo. Squid were laid out with their tentacles spread out and it was all cheap. It was expensive in Tonga and earlier when we were in the Cook Islands. We bought a piece of Wahoo which we had as fish stew last night.
Then we headed for church to hear the singing. We decided to check out Alfred’s church. This was not the beautiful island singing we had experienced at Niuatoputapu but a full on revivalist praise the lord oration of two and a half hours!
Then off to Rhoda’s for the Samoan lunch. We had mackerel cooked in coconut cream; delicious luau which is coconut cream wrapped in taro leaf and baked, a sausage noodle stir fry, breadfruit, green bananas baked in coconut cream, corned beef (not tinned) and more.
After lunch we went to Alfred’s parents place to do our internet banking. We only like to check it on secure sites, not on the wireless. We met his parents and sister and were made to feel very welcome.
Then came the first part of the island tour. We headed east. Out of Apia, Samoa is a series of villages. Most homes are open fales, a large open structure with concrete or wooden floor and a tin or thatched roof held up by a series of poles and usually brightly painted – no doors or windows so all living is done in full view although some have curtains. There are also plenty of ‘Palangi’ houses and many combinations of open fale with a corner or more enclosed with doors and windows. But the open structures are so sensible for the heat here.
We checked out a resort that had been completely rebuilt having been destroyed by the tsunami. I’m not a big fan of resorts but this one was beautiful. If I win lotto this would be my first port of call. We bought a bottle of wine and sat in a beautifully appointed bar out over the sea.
On the journey home in the early evening we noticed pairs of young men in white shirts who, we were informed were curfew police. Between 5 and 6 all residents must be in their fales spending time in prayer and with family who will be fined if one of their members is found out of doors during curfew time. There is another curfew at 10pm. It seems this society is quite strongly regulated in ways unfamiliar to us. We were required to have a letter signed by the CEO of the Ports Authority to be allowed local visitors to our boat. Names of all visitors and dates of their visits had to be specified. We needed a permit, to cruise these islands. This was free but took two meetings to secure.
The next day we toured the other half of the island seeing more brightly coloured fales and beautiful coastline. We went to the Pilau pools, freshwater pools on the coast that go into caves. We dived through a pass that took us from one cave to another.
We headed inland and saw the lush bush of the interior.
When we reached the eastern end we started to see the remnants of the ravages of the tsunami last September. Whole villages have been reshaped. Where once dense housing had stood, new houses were sparsely scattered. Many people have relocated inland. Not an attractive proposition given the heat and bugs, and the fact that many people had family buried on their properties.
On the eastern end we saw a long wharf being rebuilt. This i
s the place where ferries ran between Western and American Samoa. A new wharf at a cost of nine million dollars had just been built, and the tsunami just ate it up and spat it out.
All along the Southern side of the island we saw evidence of rebuilding, spaces where houses had been and some remaining debris. Over 100 people lost their lives.
Here we started to experience the irritating but understandable practice of everybody charging for everything. You cannot go to a beach, check out a waterfall or even take a photo in some places without someone wanting money. All land is privately owned which includes the foreshore. We just wanted to stop and eat our picnic on the beach but had to pay in the end - minor flaw.
During the following week we continued to provision and get boat stuff and party on the boats. I am not after any sympathy but all quite exhausting in the heat. (and it turned out I had a cold which explained some of the exhaustion – a result of overdoing the partying I think)
We visited the Samoan home of Robert Louis Stevenson, a beautiful historic mansion up on the hill. He was in Samoa just 4 years and yet occupies a position of considerable honour. I suspect it’s just another case of making the most of an association with a famous person.
Last weekend Rhoda and Alfred took us around the other island of Samoa, Savaii which, by the way, is said to be the island from which voyages to Tahiti, Rarotonga, Tonga, Hawaii and many others originated and gave Hawaii it’s name. We headed off on the local ferry, worryingly reminiscent of the Lady Ashika (Tongan ferry that went down). I was tempted to try and count the life jackets and David noted that there was no way all the passengers were going to fit in the couple of life boats present.
Savaii is mountainous and has a road around the perimeter lined with brightly coloured fales. We visited waterfalls, swam in fresh water and generally saw the sites. We were hoping to stay in a fale on the beach but ended up in a kind of resort, just as well as it poured with rain. Beautiful beach and some of the food was quite good.
One of the highlights was visiting a pool full of huge turtles that we swam with. Later that day we saw a place called the Lava Fields, a huge area covered in lava form an eruption in 1905. And right in amongst this area of black rock many have rebuilt their homes. This rock holds a tremendous amount of heat, guessing 5-10 degrees more than the ordinary land. Maybe they built there because it was their family land and all they had although most of the villages relocated to an area on Upolu.
We had planned to hire a car or motor bike to do this site seeing but having Alfred and Rhoda was far more fun and informative. They explained many local customs, pointed out features we might easily have missed, told us some of the folklore involving giants and dwarfs and Sina and the Eel and a great deal more. Alfred is an engineer employed by the Land Transport Authority so he was able to describe the tsunami damage to this infrastructure and work required. Rhoda works in the Disaster Management Office and was closely involved with Samoa’s tsunami response. She is currently trying to get 2 containers of tsunami aid released from Customs that have been tied up in incomprehensible bureaucratic red tape since late last year for one container and May this year for the other. The paperwork for one said it was clothing but was in fact all heavy industrial electrical cable. There is a dispute over who should be liable for the wharf fees which have grown to $27,000 and Customs is trying to charge duty on the contents. Rhoda has explained this to us several times but I still don’t follow the saga.
ket. It opens 
early so everyone can get their fish for their post-church Sunday lunch. It was a glorious site. You couldn’t have art-directed it better. There are long marble benches where everyone had laid out their wares. The fish were all in lines, lines of blue parrot fish, red mullet, and large crabs with their legs still waving in the air. There were rows of huge fish heads and enormous whole tuna and Wahoo. Squid were laid out with their tentacles spread out and it was all cheap. It was expensive in Tonga and earlier when we were in the Cook Islands. We bought a piece of Wahoo which we had as fish stew last night.Then we headed for church to hear the singing. We decided to check out Alfred’s church. This was not the beautiful island singing we had experienced at Niuatoputapu but a full on revivalist praise the lord oration of two and a half hours!
Then off to Rhoda’s for the Samoan lunch. We had mackerel cooked in coconut cream; delicious luau which is coconut cream wrapped in taro leaf and baked, a sausage noodle stir fry, breadfruit, green bananas baked in coconut cream, corned beef (not tinned) and more.
After lunch we went to Alfred’s parents place to do our internet banking. We only like to check it on secure sites, not on the wireless. We met his parents and sister and were made to feel very welcome.
Then came the first part of the island tour. We headed east. Out of Apia, Samoa is a series of villages. Most homes are open fales, a large open structure with concrete or wooden floor and a tin or thatched roof held up by a series of poles and usually brightly painted – no doors or windows so all living is done in full view although some have curtains. There are also plenty of ‘Palangi’ houses and many combinations of open fale with a corner or more enclosed with doors and windows. But the open structures are so sensible for the heat here.
We checked out a resort that had been completely rebuilt having been destroyed by the tsunami. I’m not a big fan of resorts but this one was beautiful. If I win lotto this would be my first port of call. We bought a bottle of wine and sat in a beautifully appointed bar out over the sea.
On the journey home in the early evening we noticed pairs of young men in white shirts who, we were informed were curfew police. Between 5 and 6 all residents must be in their fales spending time in prayer and with family who will be fined if one of their members is found out of doors during curfew time. There is another curfew at 10pm. It seems this society is quite strongly regulated in ways unfamiliar to us. We were required to have a letter signed by the CEO of the Ports Authority to be allowed local visitors to our boat. Names of all visitors and dates of their visits had to be specified. We needed a permit, to cruise these islands. This was free but took two meetings to secure.
The next day we toured the other half of the island seeing more brightly coloured fales and beautiful coastline. We went to the Pilau pools, freshwater pools on the coast that go into caves. We dived through a pass that took us from one cave to another.
We headed inland and saw the lush bush of the interior.
When we reached the eastern end we started to see the remnants of the ravages of the tsunami last September. Whole villages have been reshaped. Where once dense housing had stood, new houses were sparsely scattered. Many people have relocated inland. Not an attractive proposition given the heat and bugs, and the fact that many people had family buried on their properties.On the eastern end we saw a long wharf being rebuilt. This i
s the place where ferries ran between Western and American Samoa. A new wharf at a cost of nine million dollars had just been built, and the tsunami just ate it up and spat it out.All along the Southern side of the island we saw evidence of rebuilding, spaces where houses had been and some remaining debris. Over 100 people lost their lives.
Here we started to experience the irritating but understandable practice of everybody charging for everything. You cannot go to a beach, check out a waterfall or even take a photo in some places without someone wanting money. All land is privately owned which includes the foreshore. We just wanted to stop and eat our picnic on the beach but had to pay in the end - minor flaw.
During the following week we continued to provision and get boat stuff and party on the boats. I am not after any sympathy but all quite exhausting in the heat. (and it turned out I had a cold which explained some of the exhaustion – a result of overdoing the partying I think)
We visited the Samoan home of Robert Louis Stevenson, a beautiful historic mansion up on the hill. He was in Samoa just 4 years and yet occupies a position of considerable honour. I suspect it’s just another case of making the most of an association with a famous person.
Last weekend Rhoda and Alfred took us around the other island of Samoa, Savaii which, by the way, is said to be the island from which voyages to Tahiti, Rarotonga, Tonga, Hawaii and many others originated and gave Hawaii it’s name. We headed off on the local ferry, worryingly reminiscent of the Lady Ashika (Tongan ferry that went down). I was tempted to try and count the life jackets and David noted that there was no way all the passengers were going to fit in the couple of life boats present.
Savaii is mountainous and has a road around the perimeter lined with brightly coloured fales. We visited waterfalls, swam in fresh water and generally saw the sites. We were hoping to stay in a fale on the beach but ended up in a kind of resort, just as well as it poured with rain. Beautiful beach and some of the food was quite good.
One of the highlights was visiting a pool full of huge turtles that we swam with. Later that day we saw a place called the Lava Fields, a huge area covered in lava form an eruption in 1905. And right in amongst this area of black rock many have rebuilt their homes. This rock holds a tremendous amount of heat, guessing 5-10 degrees more than the ordinary land. Maybe they built there because it was their family land and all they had although most of the villages relocated to an area on Upolu.
We had planned to hire a car or motor bike to do this site seeing but having Alfred and Rhoda was far more fun and informative. They explained many local customs, pointed out features we might easily have missed, told us some of the folklore involving giants and dwarfs and Sina and the Eel and a great deal more. Alfred is an engineer employed by the Land Transport Authority so he was able to describe the tsunami damage to this infrastructure and work required. Rhoda works in the Disaster Management Office and was closely involved with Samoa’s tsunami response. She is currently trying to get 2 containers of tsunami aid released from Customs that have been tied up in incomprehensible bureaucratic red tape since late last year for one container and May this year for the other. The paperwork for one said it was clothing but was in fact all heavy industrial electrical cable. There is a dispute over who should be liable for the wharf fees which have grown to $27,000 and Customs is trying to charge duty on the contents. Rhoda has explained this to us several times but I still don’t follow the saga.
We took Rhoda and Alfred out on the harbour along with Alfred’s 2 sisters and his parents. It was a treat for them to be
out on an ocean going yacht and to see their city from the water. They were astounded that anyone would willingly go to sea in something so small. We were reminded that living aboard is quite a specialised life style and not everybody’s cup of tea. Back in or berth we made some music.It’s been a very social time here with meals and drinks on other yachts most evenings and loads of music courtesy David who teamed up for a time with a harp and ukele player. One boat here with two gorgeous preschoolers aboard brought a guitar and sax, each parent intending to learn in their spare time. But with 2 children they have yet to find that spare time. However, Scott heard David play in Niuatoputapu which inspired him to dig out his guitar and David taught him a 12 bar blues in exchange for advice on a water cooling dilemma. David says that if he had to pick a single highlight of this adventure it would be the music – playing with others and being listened to with such appreciation. It’s done heaps for his confidence as a musician. Among our first questions now, when we meet another yacht is “are there musical instruments aboard?”
Our neighbours are Swiss, German, Canadian, Australian, American, from Vanuatu and NZ of course.
So now we are getting ready to go to Niue if the wind is right. Janet is putting the final touches to a Niuean courtesy flag. Quite fiddly to make as it has a Union Jack in the corner like the NZ flag.
Xx
Janet and David
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