Samoa is mostly a launching pad on this trip as we will be here less than a day. We didn’t know until the last minute if the plane would make a stop in Tahiti for refueling. The 757 is a fine plane but the range is limited. Finally, based on winds and weight, the pilots determined that they could fly directly to Samoa without the stop. That saves us some time. The tanks got topped off at 34 tons of fuel and off we went.
Easter Island is artificially on Eastern Standard Time. Going to Samoa we not only get on more realistic time based on the sun but we also cross the International Date Line. We gained hours but lost a day on the calendar.
One of Samoa’s claims to fame is that it is where Robert Louis Stevenson spent the last 4 1/2 years of his life and wrote 13 books. This morning we visited his home. It was nothing magnificent but it was interesting. Stevenson is very revered in Samoa as there was mutual admiration.
In the afternoon it was back to the plane for a trip to Australia.
Our lovely guide at the Robert Louis Stevenson house.
Our destination is Cairne, Australia which is on the northeastern coast. As the pilots neared Cairne they said they would take site seeing of the Great Barrier Reef. They lowered the 757 to about 3,000 ft. and started twisting and turning and flying around the reef as if they were in a Cessna. I can’t imagine how much fuel they burned as the plane is not very efficient at that altitude. We got some magnificent views of the reef.
A view of a small part of the Great Barrier Reef from about 3,000 ft.