Prologue - Departure I had set the alarm for 5:00am, to allow time for last minute pre-departure preparations prior to calling a taxi. The fact I had been up until 2:00am repacking my bags meant it took a little longer in the shower for me to wake up. But the repacking was important. One of my bags weighed 29kg when I first packed it (my ticket allows for 2 bags weighing 23kg each) so a few things had to be left behind, and others moved from one bag to another until both bags weighed around 22kg each. Taxi to the station, hour long train ride to Sydney Airport, check-in the mandatory 2 hours prior to departure, my flight departing on time at 11:45am, and arriving a little early in Auckland at 4:30pm. I then had a wait until my next flight left for Samoa at 7:50pm, so I whiled away the hours in the Air New Zealand Departure lounge, reading and doing Killer Sudokus. But the flight was delayed and didn't leave until 9:45pm, which meant we arrived in Samoa at around 2:30am. By the time I had collected my bags and cleared Customs and Quarantine it was 3:00am, and the ride to my hotel in Apia took an hour (the airport is at the other end of the island). Because the hotel knew I was coming there was someone waiting for me - and surprisingly (for 4:00am), he was awake when I arrived. While I paid the taxi driver, my bags were unloaded and I was quickly ushered up through the hotel grounds to my room. Obviously, I was told, all I would want to do is sleep so I can fill in the registration etc. later in the day after I am refreshed. Breakfast is at 7:00, but I can come down anytime and still get it. Pretty decent, I thought. And then, after quickly showing me the features of my room (air conditioner, open-air bathroom etc), he left me to crash in the queen-size bed. And I slept until 11:00am. Hix
Day One - Saturday, 18th August After enjoying the unusual experience of an outdoor shower I headed down to the restaurant for breakfast, which was complimentary. The hotel - Le Manumea - is planning on having a cultural night once a week, starting sometime in September, and one of the features will be traditional dancing. The dancing girls were rehearsing under a marquee next to the restaurant and I got to enjoy a floor show while eating my cereal, eggs, toast and pawpaw. Although I have things to do and people to see in Apia, none of the government offices are open on a Saturday, so I decided to see if I could get to the forest instead. I had looked at my hotel on Google Maps before I left and I could see there was a large forested mountain just behind the hotel. Unfortunately, there were several homes between the hotel and the forest (I guess the satellite image hasn't been updated in a while), so decided to head off up the road towards the Museum and see if I could get near the forest that way. I was hoping to see some birds, and I had heard there was a botanic gardens nearby, too. Although I'm not into plants, I've found botanic gardens are usually good for birds (especially in Spring). After a ten minute walk up the road I came to the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum and although it was closed, the grounds were still open for tourists. The grounds have extensive gardens and looked good for birds. The Botanic Gardens is next to the Museum grounds, but at the back, and provides access to the forest. Furthermore, Stevenson's tomb is on top of Mt Vaea overlooking the Museum and there are two paths up the mountain to the tomb. http://www.zoochat.com/1818/robert-louis-stevenson-museum-286506/ http://www.zoochat.com/1818/robert-louis-stevenson-museum-mt-vaea-286498/ http://www.zoochat.com/1818/carving-king-malietoa-286492/ http://www.zoochat.com/1818/cycad-286493/ http://www.zoochat.com/1818/ginger-286495/ http://www.zoochat.com/1818/ginger-286505/ http://www.zoochat.com/1818/strelitzia-286508/ I spent about half an hour in the grounds looking for birds - and saw several Banded Rails, a couple of Wattled Honeyeaters, a male Cardinal Myzomela (another type of endemic honeyeater), and some Samoan Starlings (also endemic). A red-vented bulbul was hanging around the Museum building itself, as were several Indian Mynahs. Both these last species are introduced, but the Mynah in particular is hated by the Samoan people as much as it is despised in Australia, as they are aggressive and outcompete native birds for resources. Apparently they were introduced in the 50's or 60's to "remove ticks from cattle". http://www.zoochat.com/1819/samoan-starling-286346/ http://www.zoochat.com/1819/banded-rail-gallirallus-philippensis-286344/ http://www.zoochat.com/1819/wattled-honeyeater-286339/ http://www.zoochat.com/1819/cardinal-myzomela-male-286335/ Heading into the forest I decide to follow the path to the tomb of Robert Louis Stevenson on top of the mountain. If I had thought about it, I might have returned the next day instead, better prepared. http://www.zoochat.com/1818/sign-286501/ But I didn't think about it. Mt Vaea is 400m above sea level and although the base of the climb starts about 100m above sea level, the path to the top is only 580m long. That means a steep climb, with lots of switchbacks along the way. I wasn't aware of this until after the climb, but it still took about 45 minutes for me to get to the summit, stopping several times along the way to catch my breath. Starting at about 1:00pm when the sun is high and the temperature is around 30ºC probably wasn't the brightest of ideas. But I was only wearing thongs (flip-flops) on my feet which was really dumb. Luckily, it hadn't rained in a while and the track was not muddy, although I had to be careful where I put my feet when climbing over roots or rocks. Under the forest canopy there was a cool breeze which was a pleasant change from being out in the open in full sun. A number of other people were on the path too, all Samoans, all younger than me, and all wearing sneakers. They were also sensibly wearing either shorts or sarong-type skirts (lava-lavas), whereas I was in my jeans. The tomb is a concrete block on top of the mountain, with plaques embedded in the side. There are views down to Apia, and across the countryside to other villages and is a great place to catch your breath and let the sweat evaporate. I sat on a rock and watched tropicbirds and noddys in the distance flying over the canopy, and tried to photograph some smaller birds that were nearer in the trees. http://www.zoochat.com/1818/robert-louis-stevenson-tomb-286500/ http://www.zoochat.com/1818/inscription-side-stevenson-s-tomb-286507/ http://www.zoochat.com/1818/breadfruit-286494/ http://www.zoochat.com/1818/view-apia-tomb-286502/ http://www.zoochat.com/1818/view-east-apia-286503/ http://www.zoochat.com/1818/apia-harbour-286504/ http://www.zoochat.com/1818/view-stevenson-s-tomb-mt-vaea-286509/ As mentioned earlier there are two paths to the summit, known as the Short Path - which takes about 30 minutes - and the Long Path which takes about an hour. Because I hadn't wanted to spend too much time travelling to the tomb I had taken the Short Path up the hillside, but now I chose to take the long path back down. It turned out to be about 2km long but was fairly level for most of the way. There were some nice views where giant forest trees - some with 2 metre diameters at the base - had crashed to the ground and ripped a hole in the canopy. And it took me an hour to get to the bottom, mainly because I kept stopping to try and get photographs. http://www.zoochat.com/1818/view-long-walk-286510/ For the whole time I was on the mountain I could hear pigeons calling but never saw any. I did however, see some more Wattled Honeyeaters, a couple of Samoan Fantails (endemic), a Samoan Broadbill (endemic), and a couple of Scarlet Robins. http://www.zoochat.com/1819/samoan-fantail-286336/ http://www.zoochat.com/1819/scarlet-robin-286338/ http://www.zoochat.com/1819/wattled-honeyeaters-286340/ I also saw some lizards, all skinks in the genus Emoia. Commonest were the Pacific Black Skinks, found from the Museum grounds right up to the tomb and all places in between. On the mountain I also caught sight of two Samoan Skinks, an endemic species, but didn't get any good photos because they were shy and lived on trees in the darkness of the forest. And I saw a lone Emoia impar in the grounds of the Museum. Later that night I found some Oceanic Geckos and Asian House Geckos in the grounds of my hotel but - rather surprisingly - there was not a lot of them. I expected them to be crawling all over the hotel roofs and near any lights, but I could only find the odd one or two. http://www.zoochat.com/1819/pacific-black-skink-emoia-nigra-286342/ http://www.zoochat.com/1819/samoan-skink-emoia-samoensis-286345/ http://www.zoochat.com/1819/emoia-skink-286341/ http://www.zoochat.com/1819/oceanic-gecko-gehyra-oceanica-286489/ And so the day ended, after a dinner in which the local karaoke guy came up to entertain, and the Bledisloe Cup was broadcast on a projector in the restaurant from 11pm onwards. Hix Photo count for the day: 203 taken, 78 later deleted. Note for non-Antipodeans: the Bledisloe Cup is a Rugby match between Australia and New Zealand. Australia lost. Embarrassingly so.
taxonomy note: Pacific robin (Petroica multicolor) is split from scarlet robin of Australia (now Petroica boodang). So unless you saw them already in the Solomon Islands or somewhere else in the Pacific then that'll be a new bird for you
Day 2 - Sunday, 19th August Was up until well after midnight sorting and labelling the photos from the day's outing, but when I went to bed the Bledisloe was still being played (on account of the time difference between Australia and Samoa). Even though they had turned down the volume, the shouting and cheering from the New Zealanders watching it kept me awake. I woke to the sound of church bells, and heard them intermittently all day. Next to the Hotel is a Monastery, next to that a Theological College, just down the road is a convent, and there are several churches all around too. After breakfast I sat outside my fale (as they call them) reading my book and trying to photograph the Myzomela (honeyeaters) that fed upon the hibiscus blooms. I was unsuccessful with the photos because, even though the birds weren't fazed by my presence, it took less than half a second to land on the flower, stick their beak into its depths, and fly onto the next flower. Not enough time to frame and focus. I'd been told the Bahaii Temple (yet another church) was a good place to see birds, and it was further up the road from the Museum, so I decided to head up there after lunch. Although I still wore my jeans, I put on sensible boots, and remembered to add sunscreen (something I always forget until I'm burnt). After 30 minutes walking along the road up the gentle slope I came to a shop. Asking about the temple I was told it was "Too far" and so, parched and sweating like the proverbial suid, I bought some soft drink, chocolate and snacks and returned to the hotel. Along the way I managed to get some shots of Polynesian Trillers, saw a dozen or so Red-vented Bulbuls, and watched a couple of dozen seabirds gliding several hundred metres directly above me. Because they were silhouetted there was no way I could identify them, but I think they were Noddys. There are four different types of noddy in Samoa, and telling them apart is often not an easy task so I didn't even try. http://www.zoochat.com/1819/polynesian-triller-lalage-maculosa-286490/ After returning to the hotel I washed the sweat off in the open-air shower and then sat in front of the air conditioner until my body temperature had returned to something approaching normal. The rest of the afternoon was spent working on my laptop. I also reflected on how little I have done (or planned) in the last two days, compared to my usual holidays. By comparison I've been relatively lazy. But Samoa is not my holiday, it's just a staging area. Tomorrow is Monday, the government offices will all be open so I can see the people I need to speak to, buy my tickets, and confirm my departure time on Tuesday - and that's when the real holiday begins. Until then, I'm saving my money because I may need every cent over the next few weeks. Hix Photo count for the day: 16 taken, 8 later deleted.
Great thread Hix, really enjoying the story and photos, and learning heaps too, I had no idea Robert Louis Stevenson was buried in Samoa, or what species inhabit the islands. I did know the Bledisloe opener result though Looking forward to the next installment!
I choose not to remember the discussion, with no idea which island you are to visit next. My mind remains pre-boggled.
brilliant....great post and pictures. it feels like we can share the adventure. looking forward to reading and learning more.
Day 3 - Monday, 20th August My legs were hurting when I awoke. Specifically, the muscles in the back of both legs. This is most likely the result of climbing the very steep slope of Mt Vaea two days before. And doing it in thongs probably didn't help either. First order of business today was to visit the Tokelau-Apia Liaison Office (TALO), and I arrived at 10:00am. I was buying a ticket on tomorrow's ferry to Tokelau only to be told that departure had been moved forward by 24 hours and the sailing was at 9:00pm tonight. Happy with this turn of events, I bought my ticket and then went back to the hotel to pack. Two hours later I was back at the office to check my luggage in as cargo. Once that was sorted I went for a walk down to the waterfront and the markets. There was still some whole fish for sale - skipjack, albacore, snapper and a dolphinfish as well as smaller cods, parrotfish, and two unicornfish. Lots of trinkets made out of coconut shells, but also some very nice wooden bowls and some traditional Samoan axes, and something that looked like a wooden precursor to a Klingon Bat'leth. I may return and buy one if I have the time, when I come back this way again in two weeks. The sun had been relatively innocuous due to the cloud cover, but I still sweated because of the humidity. And then it started raining, not heavily, just a light shower, which was welcome relief. I caught a cab back to the hotel where I tried to relax, stay cool and unsweaty until the evening. A sign near the hotel pointed down a road indicating that Conservation International had an office there, so after lunch I decided to walk down and see what I could learn about their projects in this region. However, halfway down the road three dogs decided that I didn't know the password, and therefore I was not permitted to pass. When I arrived in Samoa I had been told to watch out for dogs as there were a lot of strays and there had been attacks, so I had been keeping an eye on these three since I had sighted them from further up the road. Two were lying in grass on the left side of the road, and a third on the right, up on a small embankment. All three were silent as I walked down the middle of the road toward them. I ignored them and looked straight ahead, but watching them peripherally. All three were staring at me, which I wasn't too happy about. I was almost about to pass them and was thinking to myself "Somebody wag your tail, or look away" when one of the dogs on my left jumped up and lunged forward a metre towards me, snarling and growling. He was a dark-coloured dog with some Bull Terrier in his blood, very stocky with a solid chest and muscles rippling all over. The second mutt had jumped up too, but was barking with head in the air and moving around the way dogs do when they want to try and intimidate. But Cujo wasn't bluffing, he was very serious and seemed to be incensed by the fact I was standing my ground. I might have managed to pass him if he was by himself, but there was the third dog on the other side of the road. He hadn't made a noise at all and was still lying on the embankment watching me, although he had lifted his head up off his paws. And when I looked at him, he didn't wag his tail either. In order to pass Cujo and his sidekick I would have to turn my back on this third dog, something I had no intention of doing. So after standing my ground and weighing up all my options I eventually chose to slowly back away and return to the hotel. Cujo, muscles rippling, ran into the road growling and snarling and watched me depart. His sidekick ran around in circles triumphantly barking. The third dog remained silent and immobile. I returned to the hotel, just a little disappointed, but as I'd been planning this boat trip for the previous six months (with several false starts), I wasn't going to risk missing the boat now due to being laid up in hospital by doing something stupid. After relaxing for a few hours I checked out of the hotel and a taxi took me down to the wharf, arriving at 7:30pm. There were about 30 other people there, but I was the only caucasian. A man with a little moustache (and looking a little Greek) came over to make conversation. "Are you going to Tokelau?" He asked. "Yes," I replied "are you?" "Yes". This was a relief because until then I wasn't sure I was at the right place. "Which atoll?" he asked. "Nukunonu. And you?" "Atafu. Do you have your bedding?" He enquired, looking at my little backpack. "No, I didn't think I would need any. I'm supposed to have a cabin" "Oh." he said "Did you take your seasick pills?" "Umm, no. I've never been seasick before" I answered. "Oh, that's good, we've all taken them. Have you been on voyages like this before?" I suddenly realised that this was something I hadn't considered. I've been on boats a lot over the years and never had any problems while others in my family have been quite ill. But they were things like the Manly Ferry on Sydney Harbour, or dive boats in harbours or sheltered waters. The PV Matua was going to be sailing the open ocean, something I'd never done before. "I have some pills if you need them" the man said. I thanked him and he went back to his family. And then I also noticed a lot of people with plastic shopping bags of food, snacks and drinks etc. Another thing I hadn't considered. I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and although I can happily go 24 hours without food, it had already been twelve hours since breakfast and the boat ride would be a minimum of 24 hours, possibly more than 48 hours. I had bought two large packets of chips as snacks for Tokelau - they were in my checked in luggage so weren't accessible. All I had in my backpack was half a small bottle of coke - I'd have to make that last. (As it was I needn't have worried - on board we received breakfast, lunch and dinner). Boarding was to start around 8:00pm, but by 8:30 there was still no movement. Apparently nobody had told immigration we were leaving a day early. They eventually arrived at ten-to-nine, and by 9:30 we were boarding. The PV Matua is a 45 metre long cargo ship, designed to take passengers as well. The 'lounge' as I called it had a total of 18 seats. Many families had forgone the seats and spread their woven mats on the floor and put mattresses on top, and they were content to stay on those. I settled into a vacant seat and a few minutes later at 10:06pm we slipped our moorings. The gentle rocking as we sailed down the harbour was causing me no grief so I relaxed, confident my stomach would be fine. A few moments later as we cleared the heads the boat lurched forward and down, then back up and over to the left, then rolled back to the right, then started all over again. "The Manly Ferry never did that!" I thought to myself. A short while later the Captain came and collected me to show me to my cabin. As I stood up I almost fell over again with the violent swaying of the floor. I staggered after the captain as he took me below decks to one of three cabins. Each had two stainless steel bunkbeds that were bolted to the floor, I was on the top bunk and was sharing the cabin with a doctor from Atafu, an old man from Fakaofo, and a member of the crew. The next few hours were a little uncomfortable, not because of the bed itself, or my stomach, but because every time we rocked to port I was worried I would roll off the bed. But a few hours of rocking and I wasn't worried anymore as we never rocked that far. And I eventually fell asleep. Hix Photo Count for the day: 0
dogs are my biggest worry when I travel, and especially in the Pacific they can be nasty! They're not little dogs either!! I seemed to spend half my time in New Caledonia being menaced by dogs. I ended up with more than a few holes in my canvas shoulder-bag from fending off attacking dogs. At one point when I was over there I had three of them coming at me, all teeth and foam, but fortunately at exactly the right moment a car turned up and got between me and the dogs, and I jumped in. David Steadman (ornitho-palaeontologist) got attacked in Tonga by a pack of dogs and got pretty badly injured. The owner only called off the dogs after Steadman managed to kill one with his machete!! He writes in "Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds: "Most of the South Pacific has little violent crime, but the abundant dogs can keep you on edge. .... while walking alone on a public dirt road [on Nomuka] a pack of five angry dogs knocked me down in a sudden, multi-angled attack. They lacerated my arms and legs while I struggled unsuccessfully to regain footing. The Nomukan man who owned the dogs watched all this, unconcerned and perhaps entertained as I desperately tried to keep the biting dogs away from vital parts. Finally, after I was thoroughly cut and bruised, and one of his curs was mortally wounded from the one good swing I could muster from my machete, the man called off his dogs."
Transit - Tuesday, 21st August The only way to visit the three atolls of Tokelau is by boat. If you don't have your own yacht, then the you have to go on the cargo ship. The previous ship had recently been retired and the PB Matua was now making its third voyage to the atolls. The previous ship had only one cabin and no 'lounge', and if you weren't in the cabin, you were sitting out on the metal deck. In the rain. For the entire 24 hour voyage. It's a five-day round trip to the atolls, and the boat leaves around once a fortnight. I'd had an uneasy night, but managed to catch a few hours sleep. I awoke a couple of times shivering, and I soon learnt that was because of the air conditioning. At about 7am I went upstairs to the 'lounge' - everyone else called it the 'TV Room' - where I was given breakfast: a cup of instant noodles, a slice of pawpaw, a small piece of coconut meat, and three dry crackers. Afterwards I went out on deck and was blasted by the heat and humidity of the real world. I stayed for a few minutes breathing some fresh air, albeit tainted with the smells of grease, oil and diesel, and admiring the way the boat rolled around in the swells and troughs. I looked for seabirds (hoping for an albatross) but there was absolutely nothing at all. I went back to my cabin to do some reading. The lounge had no appeal - there were too many crying/squealing/running children for my liking, and although they had put on some DVDs for the large screen TV on the wall, the movies were crappy things in Arabic and French with English subtitles. There was even an American film, voices dubbed into French, with English subtitles. So I spent most of the day in bed sleeping, reading, doing Killer Sudokus, or going up on deck for some fresh air and a bit of spray in the face. And then, at around 4:30pm, about 18 hours after departing, I suddenly felt nauseas. I was on deck at the time, and I hurried down to my cabin to lie down. I found that lying down was fine, but if I sat up on one arm or stood up, I quickly felt queasy again. But in my bunk I was fine. So I went to sleep again. At 11:37pm the ships engines were cut and realised we were in much calmer waters. I got up to go outside and get some fresh air and found plenty of it - there was a gale blowing and it was raining heavily too. After less than a minute I went downstairs and fell asleep again, trying not to think about the fact that I have to go through all this again in two weeks to get back to Samoa. Hix Photos taken: 0 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For anyone who hasn't heard of Tokelau - and if you haven't googled it by now, then that would be most people - then let me give you the basics: Tokelau consists of three atolls located in roughly a straight line. Southernmost is Fakaofo, about 480km north of Apia, Samoa. 60kms northwest is Nukunonu, and 90kms northwest again is Atafu. All three are atolls (i.e. coral reefs, ring shaped, surrounding a central lagoon, with small islands sitting on top of the reef), each with 30 or 40 small islands (called motu), but only one island on each atoll is inhabited (or two, at most). The lagoons vary in size (Nukunonu's is around 9km x 13km and has an area of 109km2, whereas the smallest, Atafu, is about 3km x 5km with an area of 19km2. The land area of each is around 3.5 - 4km2 each, but less than a tenth is inhabited. There is no island big enough for an airstrip - although one motu on Nukunonu is 6km long, it is very narrow - hence the boat trip. In years gone by Flying Boats occasionally made the journey, but such vehicles are no longer in service. The population varies from report to report, but the most recent census in 2011 has 309 people on Nukunonu, 385 on Atafu and 449 on Fakaofo. Best way to get an idea of its location would be to go to Google Maps and type in Nukunonu Village, it will take you straight there.
And the story continues in this thread: http://www.zoochat.com/1816/hix-goes-tropical-again-tokelau-286969/#post588841
