The Samoan islands are located in the South Pacific, almost halfway between New Zealand and Hawai’i, and approximately 4,300 km from Sydney. The islands are separated into two groups, with the eastern islands known as American Samoa – a US protectorate – and the western islands (formerly Western Samoa) now known as Samoa.
Samoa is made up of ten principally volcanic islands, Upolu, Savai’i, Manono, Apolima, Fanuatapu, Namua, Nu’ulopa, Nu’ulua, Nu’usafe’e and Nu’utele. Only the first four are inhabited and the population of approximately 196,000 is concentrated on the two largest islands; Upolu and Savai’i. About two thirds of the people live on Upolu and the capital Apia is located on the north coast of this island.
Manono, with Savai’i in the background, looking from Upolu.
As Samoa is only 13° south of the equator, the climate is tropical, with a rainy season from November to April and a dry season from May to October. The average temperatures don’t vary much between ‘summer’ and ‘winter’, but the rainfall in the wet season makes the air uncomfortably humid. When we travelled in January we found the humidity to be very oppressive once the sun had set.
Afternoon rainstorm on Upolu
We have found that the best way to get to Samoa is with Virgin as the flights are direct from Sydney (and Brisbane, for those in the north.) When we went in January 2015 there were three flights a week from Sydney – Sunday, Friday and Wednesday – leaving at 9 pm and getting in at about 5:25 am.
Virgin Flight 97 at Faleolo International Airport on Upolu
Air New Zealand also flies to Samoa, via Auckland, but the connections are not very good and the aircraft get in quite late at night. This makes it difficult to get to accommodation on Upolu and impossible to get across to Savai’i the same day.