Fiji
Solomon Islands
Vanuatu

Samoa
New Zealand

We took a large number of photographs of the Rainforest Preserve, the walkway and buildings damaged by the cyclone. Unfortunately somewhere during the course of our travels we lost this roll of film.

After breakfast we left the hotel and continued heading around the island. The last time we had travelled along the north coast road, it was a very rough ride over rather large rocks. It was now an excellent metalled road with power lines running beside it. The presence of the power lines demonstrates that virtually all of Savai'i now has access to electricity.

When we reached Vaisala we booked in at the Vaisala Hotel. This hotel is situated right on the beach at Vaisala and has a pleasantly run down feeling about it. It is obvious that the place has been through the wars, but continues to pick itself up and get back to business. We were given room 34 which is on the first floor and has a small veranda. It had both a double bed and single bed, and has a toilet and shower, with both hot and cold water, en-suite. The beach is a mix of both sand and rock and continues as such for a long way into the lagoon, until clumps of coral start to appear. There are no strong currents, unless you swim out for several hundred yards to the break in the reef, which would not be advisable.

After spending a couple of hours swimming and snorkelling we headed off to the Falealupo Rain Forest Preserve. This is a small pocket of coastal lowland tropical forest which has been turned into a wildlife park by the local villagers. The story of how it was granted this special status is covered in its entirety in the book by Dr. Paul Cox, Nafanua, Saving The Samoan Rainforest. In short the villagers needed to build a new school and the only way they could raise the money was by selling logging rights to timber company. Once the company started its work they realised the nature of the damage that would be done to their environment and with the assistance of Paul Cox managed to raise enough money to by the contract back and build a new school.

One year to the day after the establishment of the preserve, the area of Falealupo received the brunt of Cyclone Val and virtually all of the forest was defoliated. The damage to wildlife was enormous, but most affected were the colonies of fruit bat, one species of which only occurs in Samoa. The preserve is still going and in an effort to raise funds from the forest a walkway through the forest canopy has been constructed in such a way that no damage is done to the trees.

The cost of admission to the walkway is either 5 tala for locals or 15 tala for visitors, and all money raised goes direct to the local community. The walkway is suspended between two trees. A wooden stairway winds it way up and around the first tree until you reach a platform. You they cross over to the second tree using a rope bridge. A series of platform continue up the second tree linked together by ladders. This might not sound very sturdy, and it sounds even worse when you realise that there is not a single screw, bolt or nail holding the platforms to the tree. However everything is bound very thoroughly to the truck of the tree using an industrial fastening system and the whole structure is incredibly stable.

The view from the top, should be breathtaking, however when we were there low clouds were bumping along the tops of the trees and we could only see a couple of miles. At first we were struck by the fact that a lot of the trees still hadn't recovered from the cyclone, there were large numbers with no foliage on them at all, and many with only a few leaves where their crown should be. We were mistaken, it was not damage from the cyclone, but damage left by a fire that had spread through the area just a few weeks before our arrival. We spent perhaps half an hour there just looking out over the forest and I noticed the same thing I had in the Solomon Islands; there doesn't appear to be much going on in a tropical rain forest.

From here we carried on around the Falealupo peninsular. The devastation left by the hurricanes is still very much in evidence with ruined churches and empty houses still standing. However the people do not seem as forlorn as some of their property. At one point we had to pull over into the sand to let a bus get past us. The bus was decked out in what looked like garlands of red and white flowers and everyone on board seemed to be singing at the top of their voice. However when we tried to move off we found that we were stuck in the sand and although the wheels were going round we were getting nowhere. So it was Lucy into the drivers seat and time for me bounce the Sidekick back onto the road, again.

We then drove a bit further round the coast to Lover’s Leap, admission price 2 Tala a person, and looked at the sheer cliffs; no different to sheer cliffs elsewhere in the world. The cliff is the setting for a story of how a mother and her daughter threw themselves off the cliff and when they hit the water they changed into a shark and a turtle.

The evening meal at the Vaisala was a very pleasant surprise; it is a set menu, but is three course, very tasty, ample portions at a very good price. There were nine guests in total, and it made a surprisingly pleasant change having people to talk to. All through the meal there was a local group, consisting of three guitarists and a ciello player. The ciello was constructed from a large bucket, which had a piece of string tied through the middle of the upturned base. The other end was attached to the top of a broomstick, the bass of which was held in tension against the flat part of the bucket.

It was an interesting mixture of people staying there. There was an elderly couple from New Zealand, he had emigrated to New Zealand from the UK and was responsible for setting up the Apia fire service. There was an eye surgeon who is in the process of kitting out a trawler so that he can travel around the Pacific carrying out eye surgery. He reckons he can provide his service to the Samoan government for a fraction of the price they usually pay, simply because they have to fly people to New Zealand. Also staying there with his wife and son was the editor-in-chief of the UNs internal newsletter who is Samoan.