Wednesday, 13th March – Apia
Overnight the clocks were advanced twenty
five hours as we crossed the international dateline again, so we missed
Tuesday, 12th March. Today we
drove in a nice air conditioned coach along the coastline (on slightly better
roads than yesterday) admiring the well kept colourful gardens full of Crotons,
Gingers, Palms and many other exotic plants.
En route we passed many churches Catholic,
Mormon and Presbetarian before stopping at a Catholic church for a closer look.
After leaving the church Doreen enquired
what was the National flower of Samoa and our guide stopped the bus, went in to
the nearest house and asked the owners if he could have some Hedychium (Ginger)
flowers, which they gladly gave and the guide presented one of them to Doreen
(and now decorating our cabin).
After the scenic drive along the coast we
arrived at Ginas Tropical Garden where we were treated to light refreshments,
including Pau Pau, Coconut and drinking the milk out of a Coconut. The gardens were full of magnificent plants
including heliconias, bird of Paradise, Frangipanis, Hibiscus as well as
Papaya, pineapple, banana, star fruits, avocados and more.
After a pleasant hour strolling around the
gardens we watched a demonstration of a local guy climbing and picking
coconuts, shelling them and removing the
inner white layer and producing coconut milk, which we all tasted. We then also tasted hot breadfruit and
something called toya (or something like that)., which was very nice.
After an extremely good day we returned to
the ship for an early departure and a good old British sailaway., singing Land
of Hope and Glory, Jerusalem, the National Anthem and of course “We Are
Sailing”.
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