Visitors During Cyclone Wilma

Shortly after arriving back in Samoa after Christmas we had visitors from the UK. Friends from Bristol who I hadn’t seen in 10 years (am I really that old?!) and who hadn’t met Adam. It was of course excellent to see them, just like the good old days, and fantastic they made the trip to Samoa as part of their 3 month world tour.Unfortunately they arrived about the same time as Cyclone Wilma so maybe didn’t see Samoa at its absolute best however what can you do? No one can control these natural events. As it happens everywhere they went on their travels they encountered some sort of natural disaster, cyclones, earthquakes and snow storms so hmmmmmmmm!! The cyclone brought much rain and eventually some strong winds but nothing worse than a windy day in Wellington!! I had the interesting experience of trying to pick Adam up from downtown one day by driving through flooding. The water reached the bottom of the doors on the car and sploshed, sounding like the hull of a boat. The big Samoan busses coming towards me caused quite a bit of wake that I hoped wouldn’t swamp the engine.

Our friends did manage to get out snorkelling at Samoana before the worst of the storm so saw a bit of beach and sunshine. We picked them up and took them touring round the south coast of Upolu, past various sights. Lulled them into false security with a nice lunch at Sinalei resort before heading for a swim at the Togitogiga waterfalls but due to the rain they had turned into a torrential raging river like we had never seen before so we decided against the swimming idea! We arrived at our place of accommodation for the night at Hideaway, a new resort, and checked into a shared double fale with 1 room and 2 double beds side by side. Very interesting arrangement! All fine though. The cyclone decided to hit and they eye passed close by so we battened down the hatches and broke out the travel Rumikub game to while away some time. Before the trip everyone wanted to know why I was packing so many snacks and drinks however these came in vary handy during this time, especially as there are not a lot of shops to purchase things on this side of the island. On the Sunday we all partook in traditional to’ona’i Sunday lunch after dashing through the rain and holding down the table cloth blowing in the wind. That was an interesting experience for our visitors with octopus salad and solid pieces of taro which they say they could still taste several weeks later!! We finished off the trip with a drive around Lalomanu to check out the re-building after the tsunami.