Well what a start to the holiday. A Faafa show and then a netball party? Thought it was about time to take our guests away for a few days for some rest and relaxation.
Monday morning (in the car and driving by 9.00am please Angela - and yes I made it!!) we headed off first stopping at the Robert Louis Stevenson house/museum. Lovely gardens and well manicured lawns. The weather was a bit cloudy and drizzly but that did not dampen our spirits - we were now on holiday. We paid our money and joined the tour of the house which was due to start in 10 minutes - that would be a Samoan 10 minutes which meant about 20!! Never mind it gave us time to look in the gift shop at the rather expensive souvenirs for sale.
The house was apparently damaged in a hurricane some years ago so had been completely rebuilt and refurnished. They had done an excellent job by following photos that were available of how the rooms used to look. We started off in the Tapa room with the lion (yes a real one) rug on the floor. Then it was upstairs to the bedrooms. Robert Louis Stevenson slept separately from his wife due to suffering from TB for most of his life. His bed was in his study which was also set up with a massive writing desk and many old editions of his books (which the librarian enjoyed looking through!) Fanny's room was lovely of course but the best bedroom in the house went to the mother who apparently complained so much about the heat downstairs that she was given the best room in the house upstairs with sea and garden views and plenty of space to spread out.
I was facinated with the old sewing machine they had set up there and there were also some great photos and drawings on the walls that really gave an idea of what it used to be like.
Coming back downstairs through the impressive dining room we saw a huge dining table and also a large safe which Robert apparently used to lock his jewels, money and whisky in. Wise man!!
Outside was a tiny tiny house which was the kitchen and I found it strange that large meals would be cooked in such a small space. Unfortunately it was not set up like the rest of the house so we couldn't see what that used to be like.
I'd recommend a visit here very interesting. If the weather had have been better then we may also have climbed the hill up the back of the house to Robert Louis Stevenson's grave site but we left that for another time. Robert lived in Samoa for the last 4 years of his life and died in the house.
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