The Samoan Islands

Pago Pago coastline

The Samoan island chain lies in the center of the South Pacific, about 2,300 miles southwest of Honolulu. Since 1899 it has been divided into Western and Eastern--or American--Samoa. The islands comprise the only American territory in the southern hemisphere.

Friday we had a change in our original plans for a tour of the island. The son of some dear friends of ours from Minnesota happens to live in Pago Pago. Through e-mails in just the last couple days, we made connections with Pat and he offered to take us on a tour of the island himself. And what a wonderful tour he and his girlfriend, Anna, gave us. They drove us from one end of the end to the road's end at the other end of the island.

Overlooking Pago Pago

 

The islands' capital, Pago Pago is located on Tutuila, its bay nearly bisecting the island at its center. Mother Nature created the bay when the seaward wall of a great volcano collasped, allowing the water to enter the steep-sided volcano and creating one of the best, most-spectacular natural harbors in the South Pacific.

On September 30, 2009, there was an earthquake centered on the ocean floor to the west of Pago Pago. A tsunami tidal wave was created that devastated many coastal villages on the islands of American Samoa and elsewhere. We saw where many homes were destroyed, all that was left was the foundation floor. FEMA came in to help rebuild. Those who lost homes were offered a tent to live in and then the choice of either having their home rebuilt or receive $30,000 cash. Many chose the cash and are still living in the FEMA tents.

Tsunami damage on Pago Pago

Despite the Western influences, the Samoan way of life still retains its basic unit, the extended family. Family members live in small houses next to each other. The family has a fale (fah-lay) which is like a gazebo. This is where the extended family gathers for meetings and entertaining guests. Many have it set up with chairs, sofas, etc.--like a family room or den without the walls. Family members stay together even after death. There are no public cemeteries for Samoans; the graves of loved ones line up alongside
the family's fale and they are well maintained and decorated.

Graves in front of the homes

American Samoa is also the home of the only US National Park in the Southern Hemisphere.
We traveled the road up to this most scenic view.


American Samoa National Park



This one's for you, Margaret R.!!!

The next day we arrived in Apia, Western Samoa. Apia is the main port city but our activity today was an island tour to the countryside. The tour included a visit to the Robert Louis Stevenson home which is now a museum dedicated to the life of the author, who resided on this island and wrote many of his books here. We stopped at a waterfall and drove through many Samoan villages on our way to Lalomanu Beach where we had a traditional Samoan lunch alongside the beach. This is the area hit hard by the tsunami last year. It used to be a place to holiday for Samoans; now it is pretty much deserted, except for the tourists. Eighty people were killed when the tsunami hit this village. The road travels along the beach, then there is a small strip of land at sea level where the houses and fales stood, then there is a huge cliff wall. The wave hit 10 minutes after the earthquake. We could see how the people had no time and no where to run to escape.

tsunami area

Robert Louis Stevenson home

Beach area where tsunami hit

Dancers/singers welcoming the ship at port

 

Religion is a very important aspect of Samoan life. There are numerous churches in each village. Tomorrow White Sunday is celebrated in the Samoan Islands. This is a day to celebrate children in the church services. All the children wear white clothes and white shoes. Businesses closed early today to so the employees could prepare for the day...and Monday will be a holiday on the island.

It's been a busy 2 days. When the ship sails tonight, we will cross over the International Date Line at approximately 7:40 pm and what was Saturday evening October 9 then becomes Sunday evening, October 10 and the next day, Monday, will be a sea day as we sail toward Fiji.

Sea Days

We have spent the last two days at sea as we left French Polynesia and head toward the Samoan Islands. What's there to do on the ship during sea days? Lots!! Every evening there is a brochure delivered to the stateroom that outlines all the activities hour by hour throughout the next day. Just pick and choose what sounds good to you. There are seminars to attend on various subjects, games to play such as Trivia, Bingo, Bridge, dance classes, fitness classes, ice carving demonstrations, fruit carving demonstrations. There's afternoon tea time, complete with scones and cream...yum...wine tasting parties, art auctions, ping pong and shuffleboard tournaments....and of course the pools where one can just laze the day away reading and snoozing a little. In the evening there is always entertainment in the theatre and at least one of the lounges. Guest entertainers come on board for about a week and do at least a couple shows. There are string quartets and pianists playing for our listening pleasure. And if you can't think of anything to do, there's always something to eat! Yes, it's a hard life here on the ship! LOL

These past two days we have tried to stay out of the sun. It is intense and we are quite tan! A dermatologist's nightmare no doubt.

We bought a coffee card this cruise that is good for 12 lattes/cappuccinos. We're not much into those but what we do like is that the card is good for as much BREWED coffee as you want. The coffee served in the dining rooms and buffet area is just downright awful....made from a syrup. The good little tip we found out is that once you have this coffee card ($24) it never expires and as long as there is at least one punch left for a specialty coffee, you can get all the brewed coffee you want.....and it carries over from one cruise to another. So, I'm thinking we're good for brewed coffee on many cruises now
as long as we keep one specialty coffee punch on it and don't lose the card!!

Tonight we turn back our clock one hour again so we will then be 5 hours behind our Mountain Time. Then in just a few days, we will cross the dateline and completely lose a day, only to gain it back again when we fly home from Australia.

Tomorrow is Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango) American Samoa.

A day in paradise!

Bora Bora is another island in the Society Islands...part of French Polynesia. The island was settled by Tongan people in the 4th century. James Cook brought the first Europeans in 1777. Bora Bora is 162 miles northwest of Tahiti and is surrounded by a lagoon and a fringing reef. In the center are the remnants of an extinct volcano rising to two peaks, Mount Pahia and the highest Mount Otemanu reaching 2385 feet. Many high end resorts built here with the first over-the-water bungalows on stilts and today they are a standard feature...and VERY pricey! Bora bora's main attraction is its calm and crystal lagoon. The waters are said to be some of the most beautiful in the world and our experience today can certainly attest to that.

Our excursion today was a snorkeling adventure with stingrays and black-tipped sharks and also a stop in the golden coral banks that surround Bora Bora--the best snorkeling on the island. Everyone on the trip was a part of the cruise critic rollcall that we joined for this cruise so we are getting to know people and had many laughs. After snorkeling we headed to a motu barbecue. A motu is a beach on a lagoon. We had a traditional Tahitian barbecue that included roast pig baked in an earthen oven, lobster, chicken, breadfruit, pumpkin cooked in coconut milk, which they call poi, and a couple of other dishes that are hard to explain. It was all delicious! Sadly, they said it was time to go and we headed back to the ship via the coastline. What a beautiful island and friendly people.
I do believe this is paradise!

On the motu

Black tipped shark and stingray

More sharks!

The huts over the water.  Bora Bora has thousands of them!

The roast pig in the earthen oven

The beach motu.  We had lunch at the picnic bench in the water.



Sailing away from Bora Bora---we want to stay here!

 Next two days are sea days as we travel 1000 west to Pago Pago, American Samoa! It's been a busy few days....we'll enjoy the rest as we sail along.....

Tahiti

Beautiful, stunning, magnificent, spectacular! That is Tahiti. Tahiti is actually made up of two islands: Tahiti Nui (Big Tahiti) and Tahiti Iti (Little Tahiti). Most of the modern-day urbanization has been limited to the larger island, centering inPapeete, the capital. Outside of the town, you find high cliffs and cascading waterfalls, dark lava rock, dense forests and breathtaking flora. That is the Tahiti that we experienced today.

But first off, as soon as Terry saw a park along the waterfront where the ship was docked, we knew that the morning workout was not going to be going around the jogging track in small circles. We left the ship in our workout clothes and headed to the waterfront park. It was beautiful and clean and Terry couldn't wait to take off running!

Our excursion today was drive to the Papenoo Valley by 4WD. We first traveled along the scenic coastline for a fabulous view of Matavai Bay where the island was first discovered by English explorers in 1767. After the short coastal drive we turned inland at the mouth of the Papenoo River and began the ascent up the largest valley on the island. The view of the surrounding mountainsides carved by centuries of erosion and covered with rich, thick, multi-green rain forest was spectacular. Today was the first day in 3 weeks that it did not rain on this island! We benefited from that in that the cliffs were

dotted with waterfalls all along the valley's walls. We must have seen at least 100 of
them. It was a wonderful day.

Next stop...Bora Bora, the last stop in French Polynesia!

Bali Hai

Our port today is Moorea, French Polynesia. It is an uncrowded tropical island of dramatically jagged mountains, lush forests, turquoise lagoons, coconut fields and glistening white-sand beaches. The Bali Hai parts of the movie "South Pacific" were filmed here.

Arriving in Moorea

Our day started with arriving into Opunohu Bay about 9 am this morning. This is a tender port so we are anchored off shore with a magnificent view from our balcony. Our scheduled excursion today was the Whale & Dolphin Watching Expedition with a renowned marine biologist Dr. Michael Poole. We would be in search of wild spinner and rough-tooth dolphins and humpback whales. It was advertised as an acclaimed excursion that has been featured on Discovery Channel and Animal Planet.

Our tour was scheduled to begin at 1:30 so we tendered into port a couple hours early to look around at Le Petit Village, which springs to life when cruise ships are in port. The locals set up tents to sell their crafts, etc. As our tour time came near, we checked in at the meeting place and found out that our tour was cancelled due to rough seas and the fact that the morning tours saw no whales, no dolphins--only a lonely sea turtle. So, since it was too late to take an island taxi tour and the low clouds had settled in making visibility poor up in the mountains, we headed back to the ship and enjoyed the view of the bay from one of our cruise critic friend's balcony....they have one the suites on the back of the ship, which was very nice to see!

Tonight we sail 22 nautical miles to Papeete where we will dock about 9 pm. At 10 pm there will be a show in the theatre featuring the music, costume, dancing and culture of Tahiti.

Oh, we did find a boat that I thought Terry could fix up for us.....he has his mind set on a 1950 or '51 5-window chevy pickup......but I think I can talk him into this instead! LOL

A boat for Terry!

Tiki huts for rent--$15,000 a night

The local market at La Petit

The closest we got to those neat little tiki huts over the ocean which is so south pacific was from the ship as we were leaving Moorea.....we hear they rent for $15,000 a night! Gulp!
Hoping the weather is better tomorrow

Bonjour from Tahiti!

View from our balcony

Rock and rollin' on the sea

Today is our 4th full day at sea after leaving Hawaii. Tomorrow we will be in Moorea, French Polynesia--where the Bali Hai parts of the movie "South Pacific" were filmed.

All the way from San Francisco to Hawaii the seas were calm and it was smooth sailing. Since leaving Hawaii, the seas have become increasingly rough. There are white caps on the waves and the boat is rocking and rolling a bit more than it had been but not to the point where it makes one sea sick...just gentle rolling. We all look a bit like drunken sailors as we walk down the halls to the stateroom.The pools on ship are a different scene today. One of our favorite areas to laze away the day on deck is by the pool at the front of the ship. It's depth ranges from 3.5 - 5 feet in depth. With the seas a little rough, the water in this pool really took off sloshing from side to side and creating large waves within the pool. It was fun to watch and occasionally splashes of pool water would drench us on our deck chairs just outside the pool. We ventured into the pool and had fun being
tossed about and doused by the water.

After 4 days at sea we are ready to be in a port and do some siteseeing...stay tuned!

Crossing the Equator!

This morning, some time between 5 and 6 am, the ship crossed the equator so now we are in the Southern Hemisphere. Terry met up with a small group of runners to do a 5K run on the jogging track to commemmorate the occasion. It was a fun time and if it was actually a race, Terry would have come in first place. I think his knee surgery from last summer is well healed and he is in good form.

At 11 am (because most people like to sleep in while on vacation) the ship hosted the Crossing the Equator Ceremony. Those passengers who have never "crossed the line" are referred to as "pollywogs" or "slimy Pollywogs". Upon entering the domain of His Royal Majesty, King Neptune, all pollies are subject to various initiation rituals performed by those members of the crew who have made the journey before. Upon completion of the initiation ceremony, the pollies are then known as "Trusty Shellbacks".



 It looked like a good majority of the 2600 passengers on the ship gathered around the area of the main pool to watch the ceremony. It involved several (volunteer) pollywogs coming before King Neptune to hear their crime and be sentenced. First they had to kiss a fish, then the crime was read (example--one lady was accused of stealing silverware and hoarding it in her stateroom....thus the remaining passengers were forced to share the remaining supply of silverware). GUILTY everyone yelled and King Neptune would sentence the pollywog to a sliming--pouring assorted chocolate syrups, whipped cream, etc. all over them. They then would be tossed in the pool. It was all silly, but fun, entertainment. A form of cruise hazing for adults.

The crowd awaiting the ceremony

King Neptune

Kissing the fish



Getting slimed!



Tossed in the pool!



Tonight is our 2nd formal night. We have plans to meet our Coloradoan neighbors (found out they live just down the block from us back home) and another couple who are their stateroom neighbors on the ship and are from Colorado Springs for dinner. We enjoy their company so I'm sure it will be a good time.

From the Southern Hemisphere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,

Terry & Joyce