Samoa, September 2009
Samoa is a group of islands in the south Pacific divided into two. The islands of Savi'i and Upolu comprise Samoa, formerly Western Samoa, an independent monarchy. Tutuila and the Manu'a islands comprise American Samoa, a US dependency. We visited only independent Samoa, which was the highlight of our Pacific crossing, the islands we most liked.

We stopped in Apia, the capital, and Asau, a natural harbour on Savi'i. This page shows some of the sights we saw. Sadly, a tsunami struck Samoa a day after we left, causing extensive destruction on the south side of the islands, including to some of the places we had visited just days before.
Apia was neat, colonial style town, with a brand-new marina in one corner of the harbour. Aggie Grey's is its most famous hotel, a great meeting spot, still putting on the same kind of show that entertained war-weary GI's in WWII.
Robert Louis Stephenson lived just outside Apia for the last five years of his life. His house has been preserved as a museum. This is the snug little smoking room, with a totally redundent fireplace. (Note the kava bowl at the guide's feet.) There had been a pineapple plantation in the grounds. Pineapples (right) were just coming into season, and were so sweet.
A typical view on the south coast of Upolu.
A Samoan farmer's wife shows Lyn how to make coconut cream. Grated coconut is liquidised by wringing it in dried heliconia leaves. It's better exercise than a blender.
Gorgeous waterfalls abound - this is Togitogiga. The deep pools at their base just beg to be jumped into.
One of the famous Alofaaga blowholes, with Andrew watching. This was on a calm day - its hard to imagine what these must have been like during the tsunami.
The northern side of Savi'i is covered by lava fields from the volcanic eruption of 1905-11. It is an eerie landscape where vegetation still barely has a foothold. Just one building survived - this church. Lava poured through the main door and covered the floor.
Asau is a traditional Samoan village, and had a communal fresh-water pool for the laundry.
Preparing to fish in Asau harbour.
Sentinel in Asau harbour. This is a superb natural harbour protected by a coral reef, but the entrance is very narrow, shallow, and the leading line marks almost invisible. It gets moved by cyclones and is about ½ mile from its charted position. Wrecks on the entry reefs testify to its difficulty.

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