Blogs from Apia, Upolu, Samoa, Oceania

World Cruise Part 4 Publishing this on 9th February. GMT+13! On our way to Auckland. Yesterday was in Samoa. Supposed to be Fiji tomorrow but instead heading straight for Auckland. There is a category 3 cyclone brewing east of Queensland heading towards Fiji. Forecast 7.5 m waves/ swell and 60-80 mph winds. Basically we’re running for harbour and hope that we can get into Auckland before it gets too rough. An extra day in Auckland will be good. Thanks for all the blog messages. Great to hear from you all. Will try and respond, prob What’s App. More news in a few days! Monday 30th January Sea Day 21 degrees N. 152 degrees 299 n miles to Honolulu 185 n miles NW of Hawaii Island The Hawaiian island stretch 1500 miles over 137 islands The population ... read more

We head off towards Apia and stop at the Robert Louis Stevenson museum which is in the village of Vailima on a hill overlooking the capital. The museum is a spectacular colonial mansion with wide verandahs, set in huge manicured gardens, and was RLS’s home when he lived here from 1889 until his death at the age of only 44 in 1894. We join a tour of the Museum. Our guide tells us that RLS came here from Scotland with his American wife and family to try to get some better weather for his tuberculosis. He originally went to Hawaii where he was good friends with the King, but the King suggested that perhaps he’d better leave Hawaii and go somewhere else after he discovered that RLS was having an affair with his sister. I suspect ... read more

24th March Apia Apia is the capital of Samoa The travel blurb has you conjuring up visions of dusky maidens dancing between swaying palm trees. One of the things that struck us as we walked into the town were number of churches. Some 45% of Samoans are in the Congregational church with 20% Catholic. The remaining Samoans are mainly Mormon and Methodists with some minor sects thrown into the mix such as, Church of the Nazarene, Jehovahs Witness and the Bahai faith. They say that Samoa is 'founded on God' and many believe this true when in 1991 a Cyclone VAL flattened the whole of Samoa. The people believed because of their religion that God had mercy as only 7 deaths were noted over the 3 days that the storm raged. The walk from the Pier ... read more

Geo: -13.83, -171.76We're scheduled to arrive in Apia at 8am this morning. With no tendering, this should be simple. The only problem we see is that our CC tour person John, unlike others, has provided no details regarding who and where to meet after disembarking. We have our usual breakfast and exit the ship just after 8am. We see no one with any tour signs. I walk around and ask and when I approach what appears to be a tour guide and ask about our trip, he says, "This is it. Where are all your people?" Hey buddy, I'm not running this thing. Two by two, our group slowly finds us and gathers at the bus. This tour has been full for several months but apparently, unbeknownst to the tour operator, John has added people on ... read more

Just got back from our shore excursion to Apia, Samoa - independent Samoa, not American Samoa. About 40,000 people now live here, but one it's famous residents was Robert Louis Stevenson, who came here for relief from his probable TD in the late 1800's. He built a lovely home which is now a museum. Got to see a Samoan dance/singing show there. And a tour of the downtown of Apia with a stop at the huge indoor flea market - it was hot and humid. Luckily no flies - they were all at the fish market down the street where we did not go. Leaving here in a few hours and then off to Fiji where we'll be after another day at sea. Looking forward to a longboat ride there. Tonight some of the Indonesian staff ... read more