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Hardly hit the pillow

I had hardly hit the pillow last night at the Parkroyal Melbourne Airport and it was time to head back to the terminal and check in for my next leg with Virgin Australia. This all went pretty quickly and I was soon at the gate and ready to board.

I dozed on the flight and we were soon landing in Sydney. I grabbed my bag, found the car and was on the M5 and heading home in no time.

For a holiday that started with such hassle - it ended well and I actually feel rested (although I could do with another week of sleep). I would really like to go back to Samoa at some point - preferably not alone - and explore some more when I'm not partially crippled. I even fantasised a bit about extending this trip a bit. One thing that is good - is that I am getting used to the idea of just lying around doing nothing on holiday - rather than just cramming my days full of things.

I was also looking at heading back to Tonga and the Cook Islands as well at some point - but I think the general fitness level needs to improve to get the most out of such trips.

I am definitely glad that I have a couple of days at home before I need to worry about getting myself organised. You should see the state of my place after I rushed my packing and was hampered by the bad ankle. The next few weeks - where I have some days off - are really going to be about getting myself properly organised.

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MEL>SYD: Virgin Australia 737

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End of the Pacific life

Had a decent sleep in this this morning and started to pack up my stuff for departure. I decided to have one last wander around the beach and the property before grabbing a shower and finalising my bags. This time I have made sure that I have sufficient stuff to ensure I can manage my stopover in Melbourne if something goes wrong with my bag on the way back. Indeed I think this is probably change the way that I pack for all trips in the future.

I checked out of the Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey’s Resort and used up my remaining SAT before driving the Yaris the short distance back to Faleolo International. While the Avis website says that they operate 24 hours a day, the young man who rented me the car told me they are really only there in the later afternoon when the flights arrive. So the tip - which I had to utilise - was that if the office was closed, the window would be unlocked, and I should open it a little and chuck the keys inside. Pretty simple system.

I headed on into the terminal - this time into the new building which is operational for departures but not arrivals yet. The crew who flew me into APW said it was long overdue its planned operational start, but didn’t look like happening anytime soon. The airport upgrade, which in total is going to cost something like SAT40 million, tells the story of the Pacific I think. It is being afforded by a concessional loan from the Chinese government who then employ a Chinese firm - in this case Shanghai Group - to use local grunt labour to do the project. It probably isn’t too dissimilar to the way other countries have run their aid in the past - but I am sure its about influence in the end. Samoa have also signed a new Air Service Agreement with China so I guess it is feasible that a Chinese carrier could be flying here soon - but to be honest I don’t think that Samoa is ready for the demands of Chinese travellers - it definitely takes a fairly relaxed approach to really enjoy travelling in the Pacific.

Another tip for Faleolo - don’t arrive too early. There really is not a lot to do and you will find yourself at a full gate waiting for an eternity - everything seems to run late around here. Indeed, make sure you check when your flight is actually going to depart as well, because the inbound aircraft is likely to be late as well.

I checked in with Virgin Samoa (effectively just a proxy of Virgin Australia) and went and waited at the gate with people obviously heading back to New Zealand for work after visiting family for the holidays.

Interestingly, while I sat and waited I noticed that the Samoan Ministry of Health seem to board every flight before any passengers disembark. They speak to crew - presumably about whether there are anybody on board has looked unwell - and only after that is everyone allowed off. It's quite unusual to watch government officials in the lavalava and thongs going about their official duties. I quite like it.

We did eventually board (on time which seems unusual for VA on this flight) and the flight back to Auckland was uneventful this time. Luke Mangan provided a lunch including a zucchini and prosciutto salad which was quite delish. On the way over I watched the rather pedestrian (although at times graphic) remake of Ben Hur and the whistleblower documentary National Bird on my iPad and we landed with several hours for me to make my connection to Melbourne and we just have to hope my luggage goes as well. As we landed I noticed this cemetery in the flight path where it appeared that all the graves had been decorated for Christmas - I will have to look that up at some point.

We boarded for MEL on time. On the way over I watched Rainbow Time and Swiss Army Man and the time actually seemed to fly. I had a dinner of from the economy menu since the food onboard was exactly the same as my previous flight and then just relaxed. The contrast of how smoothly went with flights etc today tommy trip over was stark. We were soon heading through the Border and back on home soil.

On arrival I was pleased to see my bag and then I walked over to the Parkroyal where I will rest my head for only a short few hours. Up again for a 6am departure tomorrow.

Best get some kip.

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AKL>MEL: Virgin Australia 737

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APW>AKL: Virgin Australia 737

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Last full day in Samoa

I was up early this morning and grabbed some breakfast before heading out to see a few final sites around Upolu. I headed into Apia and had a wander around the Cathedral which I read has only just been rebuilt at enormous cost with an aim of being the premier church in Oceania. It is quite impressive inside and has this amazing parquetry ceiling including a mural in the dome featuring the islanders under Jesus.

From there I headed down the Cross Island Rd again and out the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum which features exhibits from his life in Samoa and about early Samoa itself. Stevenson lived his last four years on the island in the village of Vailima. Despite being here only a short time, he is loved by the Samoans and by all reports he also loved living here.

Observation of the day is that - despite being largely the same market as Australia, and many products from either Australia or New Zealand - there are a bunch of cars on the road that I had never heard of. These included the Toyota Noah and Voxy. I also found out that Avis Samoa runs out of the local Toyota dealership - which probably explains why all of their cars were Toyota models.

I headed back into town and then on the way back out to the resort I stopped in at Farmer Joe for some supplies including some local Taxi soda and also visited his sister organisation of Burger Bills to grab some lunch. The drive through experience was interesting with pretty much nothing left on the menu by the time I got there. The chips though - good old fashioned chippy chips. Very good.

I then headed back to the hotel and chilled out for what was left of the afternoon. To celebrate the end of the island dream I watched a quite quirky Kiwi comedy called Three Wise Cousins which follows 22 year old Adam, a Samoan guy born in New Zealand who goes back to Samoa to learn how to be a real islander - all to impress a girl. He learns from his two cousins - Fesuiai Viliamu is a total honey. The story itself is actually quite sweet and if you get a chance to watch it, do.

My last hotel dinner of a pizza and watched a couple of movies including Operator and Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie before packing my bags a little and getting myself reading for the flight tomorrow.

Night.

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Learning about Bahá'u'lláh

Wednesday

I was up early this morning and headed back into Apia and across the Cross Island Rd towards the south of Upolu.

I’ll be the first to admit that I knew nothing about the Bahá'í Faith prior to my visit today, and to be honest I only know a little more now. Basically it is monotheist (there is only one god) and was created in Persia by Bahá'u'lláh in the 19th century.

There have only been nine Bahá'í House of Worship constructed - and one of those in Turkmenistan was appropriated by the Soviets during WWII. Why one would be built in Samoa of all places is an interesting prospect. It appears that Baha'i congregations are established through a process they call pioneering. The pioneers who went from the US to Australia stopped in Samoa on the way - and then 30 years later an Australian woman pioneered Samoa. It was slow to start and now their numbers are about 3000 worshippers - or around 1.5% of the population - well behind the major religions. It helps that the former head of state - Malietoa Tanumafili II was a believer.

The temple itself was quite simple - and much like any other church you might visit. It was designed by Hossein Amanat who is an Iranian-Canadian architect who also designed the rather more grand Arc at the Baha'i World Centre in Haifa. I was the only one at the temple while there and I wandered around for about 30 minutes exploring it and hte gardens.

Despite the forecast for rain, the sun actually game out for a little while so I decided to take the chance to head down the Cross Island Rd to the village of Lotofaga where one of Samoa's more famous landmarks is - the To-Sua Ocean Trench (especially now that I have some trunks). The drive over the top of the hill in the centre of the island was a challenge in the Yaris but I made it there. It seemed that a number of the people on Upolu had the same idea. I had to wait literally ages to get the couple of photos that I did without any people in them - but all good. I even managed to hobble my way down and up the ladder for a dip. I really probably need to come back to Samoa when I am fitter and not in a boot because there is a whole lot more swimming and visits to places you need to be able to walk to to be done here.

I headed back to the north west of the island and on the way I found out some more about why I couldn't get to the Parliament building the other day. It is because it has been demolished last year, with a new building - given as a gift by the Australian Governmento celebrate Samoa's 50th anniversary of independence - currently under construction by local firm Craig Construction. Currently the Legislative Assembly meets in a gynasium at Tuanaimato built for the Commonwealth Youth Games.

I arrived back to the Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey's Resort to find that I had left the Do Not Distrub light on so my room had gone untouched. No matter. I had a shower to chill out and then grabbed myself some drinks from the resort shop before watching the rather heartwarming Wide Open Sky which tells the story of the Moorambilla Voices Choir drawn together from kids across outback NSW. It is a totally charming tale of how kids from all kind of backgrounds find commonality in music. There are two male characters in particular - one a dancer who inhabits his own space and one a young Indigenous boy who likes singing and rugby union in equal measures who bought it home for me. I was in tears when it is revealed at the end that the latter boy achieved his goal of getting a scholarship to a Sydney private school.

I grabbed some room service for dinner and settled in and watched the reasonably charming The Physician and Central Intelligence.

Turns out that while I was out during the day, the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum emailed me back. They have reopened with reduced hours over the next couple of days so I might try and head out there tomorrow. One last day to explore the island.

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Reunited at last

The phone in my room rang at 7.33am, it was Chris on the reception who does the night shift from midnight. He let me know that shortly after I visited him last night, and just after I went to bed, my Crumpler finally made its way from the airport.

Interestingly, Worldtracer still had no real information on the retrieval, but the bag tags left on it did tell the story. It appears that despite being tagged as checked all the way through to APW, it was sent to the carousel in AKL and when I didn’t retrieve it was classified as ���unclaimed’ and stored away. They eventually found it and sent it on its way, two flights later (which is a pain in the arse given there is only one flight a day). Air New Zealand, who look after the carousels in Auckland had given it a Virgin Australia lost baggage number as well - so that probably didn’t help in finding things.

The bag got dropped at my room and I went back to bed. I have decided to get plenty of rest for the remainder of this trip. I need to give myself a break and to be honest Samoa is ideal for that.

When I did get up, I showered and headed down to check out of the Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey’s Hotel and Bungalows and got the car before heading up the road to have a quick wander around the traditional looking Fale at the Samoan Cultural Village, now of course the Village (along with the Tourist Information Centre - which was closed today) are directly opposite the Cathedral, but I am struck by the fact that everywhere you look you see reminders of religion.

From there I headed out to the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum - but it was closed. I’ve subsequently sent off an email to see if it will be open again this week - but based on the kind of service response I have gotten in Samoa, I’m guessing I might be wasting my time on that one.

Observations of the day, first - the local cops can look damn fine when they wear the lavalava. Secondly, the locals do not use garbage bins for their household rubbish collection. Instead every house seems to have an off the ground platform where the leave their garbage bags for collection.

Back in Apia I decided to head west and check in to the sister property out at the Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey’s Resort which is at Mulifanua about 45-60 minutes from Apia and the main ferry terminal for the services that head across the Apolima Strait to Savai’i.

I arrived and found the car park and headed on in and was checked in pretty procedurally. I could tell pretty much instantly that I am an in town kind of guy. There was significantly more people here and when I made it to my room it was fairly characterless when compared to the bungalow in town. It has a corporate style hotel bathroom and everything is about 20% more expensive (easy to compare when the menus are the largely the same). For future visits - and I would like to come back again - I definitely would stay in town. Maybe I’m more of a pool guy than a beach guy. That said, the good points - service seems prompter and there is a chance of a good sunset if the weather turns alright.

I settled in for the night and had a great traditional Samoan chicken soup for dinner before having an animation night of Sausage Party, Ronal the Barbarian and The Secret Life of Pets. Feeling rather childish.

Very glad to be reunited with my bag. Will enjoy the next couple of days.

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Driving tour

Up relatively early (by holiday standards) and headed out for a look around central Apia. I headed next door and had a look at the old courthouse which is now in danger of being demolished from what I read. Efforts are being made to protect its heritage, but in a country like Samoa, I am guessing the protections are limited. I drove up along the government precinct and checked out some of the newer architectural buildings like the Chief Prosecutors building but unfortunately wasn’t able to get near the Legislative Assembly building which was blocked off for the holidays I guess.

The country has interesting politics. Basically, the parliament is dominated by the Human Rights Protection Party a centre-right party - with something like 96% of seats - and has done so since 1982. The Tautua Samoa Party has only three seats. Interestingly, the Chieftan of the Government is elected by the Fono (parliament) and is currently Tufuga Efi who was a former Prime Minister who had allegiances to the now-defunct Christian Democratic Party and the Samoan National Development Party. Parties start up, merge and disappear very quickly in Samoa.

If there is anything else about Samoa - it is the level of devotion that the locals have to their various faiths. Most villages appear to have several churches and you can’t go more than a couple of kilometres without coming across yet another denomination. The biggest church by worshippers is the local Christian Congregational Church of Samoa which was established by the London Missionary Society, but the biggest places of worship seem to the Immaculate Conception of Mary Catholic Cathedral in downtown Apia and the LDS Apia Samoa Temple a little further out of town. The city also hosts one of only seven Bahá'í Houses of Worship in the world after one of the former paramount chiefs - Malietoa Tanumafili II - was a member.

Today I headed back past the Mormon template which was built in 2003 after the former temple on the site burnt down. The Angel Moroni statue atop the building survived the fire and was used for the new building. This was the 22nd LDS temple in the world - which shows how importnt Polynesia is for the Mormons.

I had a wander along the main street of Apia and past the historic Chan Mow Supermarket and the the Clock Tower in the centre of town just as it started to piss down again. I enjoyed driving around for a while and checking out some of the Samoan architecture including the various meeting houses dotted around which were actively being used by people getting together to hang out on this public holiday.

I headed out to find a supermarket where I could at least find myself some basics while I waited for my bag to arrive tonight. I headed to Frankie Hypermarket - which I had read in the local rag had only opened days before Christmas with much fanfare. I have to say it might be overhyped because the product selection seemed pretty narrow with only one brand of most products. So I also checked out the local Farmer Joe’s which had probably a better range and picked up some drinks for later before heading back to the Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey Hotel and Bungalows. This time I managed to find the hotel car park.

The hotel still had no wifi (and the afternoon storms had set in so I got housekeeping to get me some more towels and toiletries and I settled in to watch a few movies including the ridiculous Mechanic: Resurrection, the graphic Free State of Jones and Indignation.

Absolutely enjoying the sound of the rain - which was almost non-stop all afternoon and evening - on the roof of the fale and just relaxing. Indeed I think I am going to miss it when I head out to the Resort tomorrow - even though the forecast is for more rain, it’s unlikely that I’ll have a roof to hear it on.

Again I ordered some room service and this time had the tempura prawns and a club sandwich and some more Vailima before 9pm when I headed back to reception to enlist the help of the friendly young lady who called baggage services at APW airport to find out what was happening with my bag. She confirmed with them that it was onboard and the flight was landing at about 10pm and after it is offloaded they would send it straight to the hotel. It is now 11.46pm and I’m about to sign off for the night - so will update you tomorrow on whether Virgin Australia came good on its promise and got my Crumpler to me or not.

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