Blogs from Upolu, Samoa, Oceania

Hello from Apia, the capitol of Samoa – also known as Western Samoa. We arrived this morning about 9:30. That gave us time to sleep in a little and still have a nice breakfast before the ship arrived. David was able to go out on deck to take a few pictures as we arrived in port. There is a local tradition of having some native dancers on the pier to welcome ships as they arrive, and we had a good view from the Promenade Deck. According to the information channel on the TV, we are at longitude of 171W and latitude of 13S. We will still visit some ports even further south, but all will be back toward the east. This is the farthest west that we will go on our cruise. So in one sense ... read more

Issy says she spent half the night awake listening to a pack of marauding dogs trying to chase off a squealing pig outside our room. She’s wanted me to get my hearing tested for a while now, and even more so now that I managed to sleep through the whole show. We spend the morning lazing on the beach and then set off along the coast in search of some lunch. We’d been recommended a small restaurant on the beach sandwiched between two fancy resorts about twenty kilometres from ours. The "restaurant" is a beachside shack with some small fales for rent around it, and it calls itself the Maninoa Beach Club. The food is excellent, as is the beachside setting. It is run by an Australian girl and her Welsh partner. She’s trying to get ... read more

We spend most of morning lazing on the beach, and I use this as an opportunity to read up on the history of Samoa. There seem to a be range of theories on where the Samoans originally came from, but the predominant one is that they travelled here from South East Asia about 3,000 years ago. We’ve noticed the Samoan and Indonesian/Malay words for the number five are both "lima", which is surely more than just a coincidence. The European powers started to take some interest in the islands in the 1800s, mostly due to demand from the chocoholics in their homelands for cocoa, and in 1889 Britain, Germany and the United States all sent warships to Apia and a major conflict seemed likely and imminent. Fortunately a big storm destroyed most of the ships, and ... 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

Issy and I both seem to have caught colds. Issy blames me for hers. I have a slightly different view of events, but she sounds a lot worse than I do so I don’t feel brave enough to argue. It’s both Sunday and Father’s Day here. The Sabbath is strictly observed here in deeply religious Samoa; the whole country is closed for the day, so we plan a day of doing very little. We tried to guilt our offspring into believing that it was Father’s Day the world over and that they should therefore shower me with love and gifts, but it seems that they haven’t fallen for that little ruse. There’s also a public holiday for Father’s Day here tomorrow. I think this is something that should be instituted in Australia as well; only for ... read more