Samoa: Ocean Trench, Sliding Rocks & Humidity So Thick You Can Lick It!

We thought we’d experienced humidity in various countries over the past 25 years…

…but Samoa is now the #1 winner of what I tell people is, “Air so humid I felt I could almost stick my tongue out and lick it!” 🙂

Rather than fly with good old AirNZ straight from Auckland to Los Angeles, a flight we’ve done too many times to count, we decided to

island hop our way!

We’ll be doing 3 islands inbetween AKL-LAX, starting with Samoa.

There are actually a number of people living in New Zealand with Samoan heritage, and we’ve been to a number of other South Pacific Islands in this area, so we were excited to visit Samoa finally!

If you’ve been to the Hawaiian Islands and you’re thinking, “Oh, Samoa is like Hawaii”…no…no it is not like Hawaii, on almost every level. What would be the fun in that? 🙂

I say that just so if you’re a person who loves Hawaii and you’re thinking you now want to try Samoa, be prepared for

a whole different type of island(s)!

It’s less developed, for one. You will be in a whole different country without your favorite brands at the grocery store. There will be few to no Americans (we ran into exactly Zero Americans during our two weeks in Samoa – I did meet and talk at length with one Canadian woman who runs a nonprofit there, that was the closest!)

We think the adventure and beauty is worth it!

This is what I do when my daughters want to go RIGHT TO THE EDGE OF CLIFFS. I don’t always say no but I do require that they hold onto my hand, which probably ensures little to no safety but for some reason I feel better. If we go down, we’re going down together. And I like that they’re adventurous and don’t want to quash that. 😉

We learned how to weave baskets out of fresh coconut palm fronds…

We still have one basket that we brought with us, even though it turned brown, it still holds things!

One day we walked to the Sliding Rocks on the south coast of Upolu. The stairs are steep but get you there safely!

Some local kids were there so we got tips on the best spots to slide down…

This was one of our favorite things we did in Samoa and the girls still talk about it feeling like we were the Swiss Family Robinson. 🙂 ha! Well-played, my daughters…

One day we visited Robert Louis Stevenson’s home outside of Apia (Vailima).

We learned SO MUCH not only about him and his family but the history of the area, the people, traditions and culture…

Personally, my favorite part was the amazing natural native “wallpaper” that still was holding up over a century later!

When you’re actually there, you can understand the struggle RLS’s family had with the humidity here…you really do feel for them. Especially coming from Scotland. Had I just read about it in a book, I would have thought they were wusses but no, once you’re there in Samoa (and if you’ve been in Scotland for the right months to compare), you truly have compassion and understanding for them. 🙂

It’s beautiful, but you beg for the tiniest breeze. 🙂

The girls that work here as tour guides were WONDERFUL! You don’t want to miss this, even if you don’t care much for RLS. 😉

We learned how the native boys like this learn early to climb straight up a coconut tree. Always impressive.

Fresh fish with coconut and taro…

Another day we hiked over lava through mangroves to the ocean…

The second place we stayed was on the south side of Upolu and gave us fun extras to enjoy like slides into the ocean…

…as well as kayaks, and a pool bar where I had a morning “date” with each daughter while we sat on bar stools in the water. 🙂

Thankfully we also had our own snorkel gear and could snorkel the reefs off the beach too…

The view from our patio where…

…coconuts would fall and our daughters would beg daddy to open them. SO MUCH FRESH COCONUT every day, it’s a good thing we all like it!

The To Sua Ocean Trench was one of our favorite things we did in all of Samoa!

To make it easy, To Sua literally means “giant swimming hole.”

To get there, you have to follow a series of steps and steep ladders…

The ladder going down is slippery, near-vertical and not for the faint of heart!

Thankfully no one in our family is afraid of heights. 🙂

We spent a lovely day here swimming (bring your masks for extra fun!) and exploring the cave on the north-ish side that you can also swim into.

You can jump into the water off the ladder, the platform, or — if neither of those suit you — the ladder itself goes down through a hole in the platform to the water so you can ease your way in.

Eventually you’ll have to leave, sadly…here’s a look as you’re heading up the ladder.

One last look before leaving…

We brought a late lunch and enjoyed it up here in the shade…

…then went on a walk and spotted this empty man-made pool down by the ocean! (You’ll have to walk down another lot of steps and stairs to get there…)

We swam in it for an hour or two and enjoyed the biggish waves that pushed water in every now and then. (Big enough to be fun; not so big that they were dangerous yet.)

One day we also enjoyed a huge Samoan thunderstorm that moved in…

The girls entertained themselves in our family bungalow with a stuffed animal wedding. I believe it was a cat and dog that got married, with this kiwi (given to the girls by some friends in New Zealand) serving as the ring bearer.

Our daughters can entertain themselves anywhere. (PS: Printing paper dolls for them to color when you’re traveling the world for years is a great space and weight-saver! 🙂 )