Blogs from Samoa, Oceania - page 5

During the night we steamed across the South Pacific Ocean into the Samoan Basin. This morning we approached on a Northerly heading towards Pago Pago harbour. Approaching to the entrance, Dawn Princess left on her starboard side Breakers Point and on her port side Tulutulu Point before making final approach towards our berth. In the afternoon when all passengers were back on board we thrust off from the berth and exited Pago Pago Harbour limit. Once clear we then set sail on a South Westerly course towards Auckland.Six Islands comprise American Samoa and there is a population of only just over 57,000 people... read more

18th February Pago Pago, American Samoa Today we docked in Pago Pago, (pronounced Pango Pango) on the island of Tutuila, the largest of seven islands that make up American Samoa. It has a natural deep harbour which was shelled (only once during WWII) and is home to the Tuna cannery which employs up a third of population of the island. You knew about the cannery when the wind shifted every now and again!! It was a warm and humid morning when we docked. The islands lie in the tropics with heat & humidity highest between December and April when you have the highest rainfall, which inspired Somerset Maugham’s story of Sadie Thompson entitled ‘Rain’. There is a hotel called Sadie’s on the Beach close to the berth. There are few historic sites on the ... read more

Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango) - what a breath of fresh air after five days at sea. Very mountainous and lush, with lovely friendly people. While it was high 20's temp here today, the cooling trade winds made it feel not so humid. We had a long walk around the main area - then decided to catch a local bus around the bays and over the top of the mountain around the national park, it was a lovely trip with gorgeous scenery and a great way to engage with all the locals who were so friendly on the bus. When we arrived at Vatia at the end of the bus line we took a walk around the cove and through the village and then caught a bus back to Pago Pago. There were churches on every ... read more

Access to Nu’utele Island is only possible from Lalomanu at high tide because the reef has no channel so the sea needs to be high enough for the boat to ride above the reef. Fortunately the high tide today was at 8am, perfect for going birding. An Austrian chap called Walter from the place I was staying was also interested in going to the island for no real reason, so in the morning Foki picked us up and we set off in his little tin boat. I’m a bit erratic when it comes to sea-sickness: sometimes I don’t get it at all, and sometimes I get it bad. It’s only about thirty minutes across to Nu’utele’s beach but I was already feeling pretty queasy by the time we got there. I was going looking for the ... read more

Another up and down day. I had been going to go to Lalomanu at the eastern end of Upolu today but it was Sunday and there are no buses on Sunday, so I decided on a return assault on the Vaisigano watershed. The head worker that I’d got a lift from yesterday was named Phineas and he had told me that I was on the right trail down to the valley (annoyingly!) and he arranged for one of his workers, called Alibut, to take me back there today so I could actually get to where the birds were. That’s Alibut as in the Samoan version of Albert, not the Pirate version of a large flatfish (“Arrh matey, I’ve ‘ooked meself an ‘alibut! Pieces of eight, etc”). So in the morning I arrive at Phineas’ house at ... read more