Savai’i – House & Garden

Swim with the turtles, scramble over lava fields or simply enjoy the hospitality of the Samoan people on Savai’i – the hidden treasure of the South Pacific.

STORY: TRACEY SPICER

Visiting the gateway to the underworld sounds like the holiday from hell.

But watching the world’s last sunset, over the western tip of Savai’i just metres from the International Date Line, I’m swept away by the myths and legends of the Samoan people.

Sunset Point is the very cradle of Polynesia; a place of fierce and untamed beauty, untainted by tourism.

Despite direct flights from Australia to the main island of Upolu, few travellers take the hour-long ferry trip to Savai’i, where locals live much as they did thousands of years ago.

Here, there’s no concept of ownership: what’s yours is everybody’s.

Family is so important that deceased relatives are buried in plots in the front yard of the family fale – the open-sided, thatched huts which serve as lounge, dining and sleeping quarters.

Meticulously manicured gardens surround each fale, like rows of brightly coloured skirts.

You can rent a beachfront fale for as little as AUD$30 a night, including linen, mosquito nets, breakfast and dinner.

And what a view! The colour of the ocean defies superlatives, alternately turquoise, emerald and gin-clear (or perhaps I was just drinking too much of the stuff).

Driving the coastal route from south to north is like watching a tennis match, bouncing from the idyllic beach scene on my right to snapshots of days-gone-by to my left: an elderly man in an arthritic hunch, cutting grass with a machete; a naked toddler chasing a pig for the Sunday umu (roast).

“The houses look simple but, if you were honoured enough to be invited in, you would have the best meal of your life and sleep on the best linen,” says our gracious guide, Dominic.

Samoans believe that ‘greeting a guest should be like the joy of the birds greeting the dawn’.

Treasure Island author Robert Louis Stevenson, who spent the last years of his life in Samoa, called them ‘the happy people’.

As I jog along the roadside, I’m greeted by Sunday churchgoers wearing elegant puletasi dresses, in sharp contrast to my ill-fitting exercise gear.

Next to the church (one of thousands in this pious nation) is our best-of-both-worlds accommodation, the luxurious Le Lagoto.

These fales actually have walls, so you can turn on the air-conditioning during stifling hot summer days.

At night we open the louvers, allowing the gentle ocean breeze to lull us to sleep.

While the north and east of Savai’i are all sand and snorkelling, the west and interior are studded with volcanic craters, towering waterfalls and dense jungle.

On the south-western tip, angry seas pummel the rocky cliffs creating a series of dramatic blow-holes. One of the locals lobs a coconut 200 metres to the top, where it appears to levitate.

We drive east to the Afu Aau waterfall for a refreshing open-air shower.

The most intriguing feature of the landscape is the vast, crevassed lava field, the legacy of a devastating volcanic eruption in 1905.

Fales, schools and churches are build on the black gunk, with frangipani trees sprouting between the cracks.

Nearby is one of the few tourist attractions, the Turtle Sanctuary, set up by a local fisherman who rescues and rehabilitates injured Greenbacks.

I gingerly step into the saltwater pool, conscious that tourists have had their fingers nipped by near-sighted turtles, mistaking the digits for dinner.

I proffer a papaya leaf to the largest prehistoric creature, who responds by nibbling at the end then tearing the plant from my hand, prompting an embarrassingly girly squeal.

Our journey ends where time begins – the only place on earth where you can see tomorrow.

Dominic guides us through lush rainforest at Sunset Point to Vaisuatoto – the pool of blood – where the aitu (souls) of the high chiefs battle to settle quarrels.

It’s ironic that some of the most gentle, kind and friendly people on earth have such a bloody mythology.

I leave Samoa feeling relaxed, and richer, for this extraordinary experience.

Time is the enemy of the avid traveller: see Samoa, before it’s too late.

Fast facts

GETTING THERE

Polynesian Blue flies direct from Sydney and Brisbane to Apia, on the main island of Upolu. Stay overnight before taking the one-hour ferry trip to Savai’i.

www.polynesianblue.com

WHERE TO STAY

In Apia, Upolu:

Aggie Grey’s Lagoon, Beach Resort & Spa

0011 685 45611

www.aggiegreys.com

Le Manumea Hotel

0011 685 27755

www.manumearesort.com

On Savai’i:

Le Lagoto

0011 685 58189