Upolu (Samoa)

Samoa

To fly to a South Pacific tropical island from England isn’t cheap. I mean it’s all the way on the other side of the world. Luckily I happen to be on the other side of the world and New Zealand has to be the perfect departure point to visit any of the little island nations that sit so close to this stretch of land. While I’m in NZ I thought I couldn’t and probably shouldn’t pass up such an opportunity to explore this part of the world, and so some time ago I booked return flights to Samoa. There were 5 of us going; my two flat mates – Harriet and Scott, Myself of course, and also Rob and Kate who had just finished their month of exploring New Zealand’s South Island.

Out of all the South Pacific Islands I’m not actually sure why we chose Samoa in particular. I think it covered all the basic criteria, with incredible beaches, a lot of sun and some cool activities to see. Plus it isn’t currently disrupted by political affairs or about to erupt lava all over the place - as is the case with other nearby nations.

To get to Samoa you need some sort of time machine – it can be anything you like. We chose a Boeing 737. We left on Saturday 25th April, very early in the morning and 4 hours later arrive in Samoa on Friday 24th April. Now I’m not stupid (well mostly not) but we had just travelled back in time. Apparently this rare phenomenon has something to do with what’s known in the world of fantasy as – The International Dateline (IDL). The IDL is an imaginary line on the surface of the Earth opposite the Prime Meridian, where the date changes as one travels East or West across it. Samoa is not just across the dateline from New Zealand but is almost right on top of it. Either way, crossing the IDL travelling East (as we had done) results in a day or approximately 24 hours being subtracted, while crossing West results in a day being added. Essentially what this all means is I would get to experience Friday the 24th April, 2009 all over again. This was quite fortunate – as I wasn’t really that happy about my first Friday 24th April – it was generally filled with going to work in Auckland, boring packing and running about airports, so I was delighted that I would get another crack at it. I was sure as I stepped off the plane to a wall of heat; surrounded by Palm Trees, clear blue skies and clearer blue waters – that my second Friday 24th April would certainly exceed my first.

Samoa (also known as Western Samoa and very different from nearby American Samoa) is situated just East of the International dateline and just South of the equator, about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii, in the Polynesian region of the Pacific Ocean. The countries total land area is just smaller than the US state of Rhode Island and while there are hundreds of small islands associated with Samoa, 99% of this land area is located on its two main islands – Savaii (the big island) and Upolu (the small island). The international airport is on Upolu where we were greeted by a tropical paradise.

We spent our first three nights at a Beach Fale resort on the South-East tip of Upolu and the complete opposite end of the country from the airport. We taxied across the island, taking in the stunning scenery. Upolu has a Jungle interior, generally sparse of inhabitants apart from the odd scattered town. It’s along the Island’s stunning coast that most villages reside. We arrived at Lolamanu – considered to be the most spectacular beach in Samoa and it didn’t disappoint. I’m not going to describe it to you – it’s exactly how you would imagine a beach paradise tropical island to look like. Palm trees along the front, white sand, crystal clear blue sea – you know the deal. We stayed in an open beach fale. Essentially a hut, located right on the beach front, yet while they have a roof – they don’t have any walls. You do have a cover to wrap around the sides (as makeshift walls) but otherwise you just leave them completely open to the elements and because there are no doors on it – you wake up to the sight and sound of the sea. I highly recommend such accommodation. When we arrived they were actually using our fale for photographs and there was a stunning young female Samoan model posing in it. Apparently it was for the new Samoan tourist brochure and they wanted some pics. Unfortunately when they cleared our fale for us they took the stunning young female Samoan model with them.

Actually on Upolu we were pretty lazy – I mean we wanted a holiday and to do very little for most of the time and for those first three days that’s exactly what we did. We swam in the sea and lazed on the beach drinking out of coconuts. I had brought the football of course and we spent many a time playing all sorts of games in the water – particularly with local Samoan kids who were desperate to join in. We also all got burnt on our first day – the sun really is strong in this part of the world. On our first night, we drank most of our duty free alcohol and got chatting to a trainee Priest who told us of a party down the road. Barefoot, Harriet, Scott and I trudged down the road in the pitch black with not a clue where we were going. We eventually gave up and ended up hitch-hiking back with some Samoan guys who were very keen on our bottle of alcohol. The night ended with the three of us in the sea (swim-wear forgotten but alcohol not forgotten) and then bumping into our friend John the Priest who was also taking a 2am swim. The next morning John was gone and so was our half bottle of Vodka – Priests!!!

The restaurant catered for all our food needs – where we were brought a variety of traditional Samoan dishes. They mainly constitute; Taro, which is a potato but not one I have ever tasted before. It was grey in the middle and was more closely related to the texture of Kumara or sweet potato – except it wasn’t sweet. They put it with this green sauce and it was pretty tasty. Other dishes use a lot of fruit (fruit out in Samoa was delicious) – especially bananas. In fact they have so many bananas everywhere you can literally go up to the tree and help yourself. They have a tree growing outside every bus stop for you to snack while you wait!!! We also ate a lot of pig – they are running around all over the island, and fried chicken is also popular. The other main dishes involve some sort of fish. Now I’m not usually in for trying such sea-faring things but I did manage to taste a few different varieties of watery creatures and some where even edible to my taste buds, but I don’t think I will be making a habit of it.

We spent our other nights, drinking and chatting to other tourists and the local Samoan’s. On one night the resort put on a traditional dance performance. The music and the dancing was very much reminiscent of a Maori performance I saw in NZ – but then they are very closely related, all being part of the Polynesian style. There was fire dancing too, which reminded me of my time in Asia – especially Thailand where similar fire throwing dances were common on the beach-front. The Samoan performers were great, dressed in traditional gear (which isn’t very much clothing). The Samoan’s are huge too. Just like the Maori’s, pretty much most of the Samoan’s you meet are eight times your size in all directions. They may have pretty flowers in their hair and where lava lava’s (a single piece of rectangular cloth worn like a kilt or skirt) but you wouldn’t want to play Rugby with any of them. They are however extremely friendly and helpful.

Eventually, we left Lolamanu and headed off to the big Island, Savaii. We stopped through the countries capital – Apia, which is a big hustle and bustle town full of markets, crazy transportation and generally pure chaos. We were going to spend our last day in Apia so decided to skip straight to the ferry port and catch a ride over. The boat trip is an hour and something and after passing some cool looking smaller islands on the way we reached Samoa’s largest landmass island – Savaii.........................