Day 97 Apia, Samoa

Day 97 Apia, Samoa

Perched just east of the International Date-line this tropical island country in the South Pacific became our second to last port before our expected arrival into Sydney. We arrived at this tranquil haven early this morning, Paul and I were again sitting on our balcony with our continental breakfast but this time we were entertained by the local Samoan Music and Dancing Group on the wharf. Ukuleles, guitars and drums accompanied the singers as the dancers swayed on or pounded the ground they stood on.

We joined Brian, Ros, Merrilyn and Roger to find a taxi to take the 6 of us on a tour of the island for our stay in Apia. When we arrived at the gate Brian spoke to a taxi operator who had negotiated with a group of 4 who were intent on the same type of hire. It worked out this taxi driver had a van which took the 10 of us at $25 US or AUD each. Ed and Bev are cruise critic members whom we had already met, Janet and Brian had been on the ship for almost the same time as us but today is the first time we had met. Janet explained she had fallen over their luggage the night before the Sydney departure and had cracked her knee cap in half. Whilst she was in hospital getting it wired and pinned her husband took the luggage and himself onto the DP and sailed to Darwin where he disembarked and flew back to collect Janet in Sydney. They then flew to Singapore and joined the ship. The plane had to circle Singapore for an hour before it was safe to land in the tropical thunderstorm. Oh I remember that storm! Janet is managing to walk quite well but with care around the ship. Remarkable. Good on ya Janet.

The stately mansion and tropical gardens of Robert Louis Stevenson was our first stop. Note to self: when home get at least one of his books, Treasure Island, Kidnapped or Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and read them to some of the grandchildren. Stevenson was loved by the Samoans and the engraving on his tombstone was translated to a Samoan song of grief which is well known and still sung in Samoa.

"Under the wide and starry sky,

 Dig the grave and let me lie.

 Glad did I live and gladly die,

 And I laid me down with a will.

 This be the verse you grave for me:

 Here he lies where he longed to be;

 Home is the sailor, home from sea,

 And the hunter home from the hill"

This morning we experienced a few showers, however as the day progressed, most had cleared and the sun ended up shinning in a cloudless blue sky. As we drove along the coast the seas were quite choppy and grey but as the clouds passed the water turned to that beautiful tropical aqua blue. We stopped at a resort nestled alongside the Methodist Church which is built over the islands' lava tubes. We walked along the beach of the resort, across a couple of dry sandy creeks and through a barbed wire fence to see the cave pools and underground caverns formed by the lava tubes.  By the time we climbed the stairs to the church we realized we should have entered by the main gate and paid a fee to see the caves.

The last stop before heading back to Apia turned out to be the Falefa Waterfall. The viewing point just happened to be guarded by family members who owned the local land and waterfall site, so a fee of $2 each was paid by us to stand near the edge of the road to take photos of this delightful waterfall.   

Janet requested to see turtles, so the driver obliged by driving us back, through the capital city, Apia, to the beaches on the other side. Of course the drive through Apia take no more than 10 minutes. It turned out to be a great suggestion of Janet's. Lots of different sized turtles. We stopped off at a supermarket/bakery to buy several loaves of bread to feed the turtles but the bread was fresh and as we hadn't had anything to eat since 7am and it was a least 1pm, we were all hopping into the bread. It worked out to be one piece for the turtle, one for me! Yeh, you say, you are on a cruise ship and all that food 24/7 and you are starving? Mmm. I try not to think of it but we only have 6 days left. Everyone is mentioning it. You get into a lift and the subject is about the number of days left before getting off the ship. You sit down next to someone and the subject is which port you are getting off in, Auckland or Sydney? Ugh, don't want to think about it but we are missing our family and friends and are looking forward to seeing them.

We enjoyed our second visit to Samoa and would gladly return to this friendly, orderly and idyllic country.

The ship had sailed out about 2kms past the reef when it changed direction. A 180 degree turn to sail back into Apia. It happened to be about 5 mins after we realised the ship had been negotiating this turn that the Captain broadcast the ship was returning to Apia for a medical emergency. The DP reached to reef when it slowed and stopped to allow the pilot boat to come alongside the opened ship's tender platform. This is when we saw two people and luggage transferred to the pilot boat before it headed back into Apia and we turned once more to sail to Auckland. We heard later today there were 2 other passenger medical mishaps. A lady slipped and fell on deck 14 and broke her leg and another lady slipped and fell on tour and broke her foot. Come on guys….we have less than a week of the cruise. Hopefully we do not have any more medical emergencies.