Blogs from Samoa, Oceania - page 8
February 6th 2007
Day 23 - February 6, 2007, Tuesday, At Sea Bound for Pago Pago Time: 8:15 am (1:15 pm CST) Latitude: 15 degrees 40.14 minutes S Longitude: 162 degrees 49.94 minutes W Speed: 20 knots average Winds: 13.2 knots Distance traveled from FLL: 8174 nautical miles Weather: 84 degrees / 83% humidity, Cloudy with rain showers Well we are at sea again today and it’s a toss up whether to try and accomplish any school or not. The ship has a full schedule for us today. We have a Ship bridge tour scheduled for today (yeah!), a port talk for Suva, Fiji and Explorations Speaker series talks on Rainforests, and one on Ocean waves, entitled From Cat’s Paw to “Perfect Storm”. Oh, I can’t forget lunch—a favorite of the boys, a Mongolian Cookout where you can choose ... read more
November 2nd 2006
Overcast, 35c Remember those two things when you come to Samoa and you’ll be right! The dogs are mostly friendly but you've got to be careful and it's rude to wear your shoes inside (I forgot a few times and felt bad!). Apart from that I’m really unsure what to say about Samoa. Not because it’s terrible, it’s just not terribly exciting. Very very conservative too. Da Vinci Code banned, church bells ringing every afternoon and you go outside to pray and Sundays.. well… there is absolutely nothing to do. Everything shuts and leisure activities are discouraged. Fair enough. It's kind of relaxing I guess! It's just very different to the rest of the South Pacific but that's not a bad thing. Comedian Dave Hughes once said that when a guy walks into a bar we ... read more
September 24th 2006
The September Hols!!!!! At last ! After what seemed an eternity - the holidays finally arrived. Ivor and I lazed around a bit on the Saturday and then packed up and set off for Samoa on the Sunday morning. Who says that time travel is not possible?? We set off from Hobart at 9am on Sunday morning and arrived in Apia, Samoa at 1,30am Sunday morning - what on earth?? Turns out that you cross the International dateline when going to Samoa, so although it is only 5 hours away from Sydney, it is 21 hours behind Hobart. The journey there was uneventful. We got a lift to the airport from a colleague of Ivor's and arrived with plenty of time to catch the plane. We flew to Sydney in 2 hours and then had a ... read more
September 28th 2005
Well, I spent the last week on the beautiful island of Samoa in the South Pacific. On first arriving I was just taken with how beautiful the country was. It is surrounded by the most beautiful blue water and is made up of rugged volcanic mountains with incredibly lush rain forest and jungle everywhere. I made my way to the capital of Apia. As I was driving along you start to notice the different villages that make up the island. There are about 300 villages total on the islands and are made up of extended families. You start to notice the homes that make up each of the villages. They are open sided dwellings that are called fale. Each family lives in one large room with upwards of 10 people in one home. Some of the ... read more
November 19th 1999
I first met the Samoans at the 1999 Arafura Games in Darwin. They were a great bunch of blokes and invited me to visit Samoa after the Games. I was more than happy to do so! INTRODUCTION This report is based on my trip to Samoa from 19-22 November 1999. There are those in Australia who believe that footy in Samoa (and the Pacific generally) is great novelty value and represents no more than goalposts made from palm trees and coconut juice at half time. This report firmly dispels such notions. The potential to develop footy in Samoa is huge and the Samoa Australian Rules Football Association (SARFA) is just scraping the tip of the iceberg of what can be achieved. Indeed, so successful has SARFA been in such a short space of time that it ... read more
