Ala o le alofa Apia, , Samoa
By Vailima on 11-Aug-02. Waypoint GC7E06

Found with Vydra20. TFTC

Made the find on April 14, 2014. Thank you for bring us to RLS. home. The house and gardens are really well
kept,

Sorry for the late log entry, the internet is slow on a cruise ship,

Found this interesting place while visiting Samoa on a cruise ship. It inspired me to read Treasure Island again after many years! I have emailed you the quote

Another stop at Apia Samoa during our cruise.
Shortly after our arrival, we hired a taxi and drove to the beautiful mountain of the island, passing a beautiful landscape.
Thanks for showing this nice place
TFTC

Another stop at Apia Samoa during our cruise.
Shortly after our arrival, we hired a taxi and drove to the beautiful mountain of the island, passing a beautiful landscape.
Thanks for showing this nice place
Team sissifalke

Thanks for the cache.

MfG Wir4Ms

My muggle friend and I arrived at Robert Louis Stevenson Museum to find the gate closed but it was lucky for us because the gardener let us drove through around the driveway and saw the big & beautiful house then we went next to the reserve park where the cache was hiding so when we arrived at the car park and I realised that I couldn't walk up the hill because I had a bad fall the other day so I took photos of RLS museum and this park here instead. I noticed that terrain marks as 2 stars which I think it is not right because I looked at the map and shows 2 different ways to get the top of the mountain so this one was more than 2.4 KM trail on long way or 800M trail on short way but it was very steep and have to use the rope to climb because they had a bad cyclone in 2011. I believe that the terrain should be 4 stars instead? I was about to use 2.4 KM trail but I declined to do this which is disappointed for me but nothing I can do so maybe next time? See the photos here.

It had been raining for days and still was when I arrived at Villa Vailima. The folks at the RLS Museum told me the trail to the tomb was closed. I honored the closure. I placed a photo in the Image Gallery taken from the museum porch looking toward Mount Vaea. The mount can't be seen through the rain and clouds. Perhaps I'll return to Samoa and get another chance to visit the grave. Bob

With the previous day of rain, we set off up the hill with the thought that the track may be quite slippery - turns out it was both slippery and a bit muddy! Made for a great adventure! Took the 'long track' up and the 'short track' down.

My time on Mt Vaea was one of the highlights of Apia for me. Thanks for the cache

confusing,,, gained a day,,, lost a day never had Nov 1 this year,,,, this is paradise

Hiked up here on a cloudy Friday afternoon, quite a climb, especially with the humidity, but rewarded with a spectacular view! TFTC!!

We had the quote for some time now, but didn't get around to finish the last part. So on a rainy day we spent some time to look for book. Very nice one!tftc.

With this cache I have a few new statistic records: my farthest cache away from my home location, the most southern cache and the most western cache I've found and my first virtual cache!

This gives me an incredible feeling!

Yeah!!!

Thanks Vailima!

Greatings,

Pittafriet

Took a hike up to the tomb and looked for the answers to log the cache.
Have mailed the answer to the cachowner.
Thanks for showing me this wonderful place

A great day spent around the Apia area, coming over from the Airport Lodge for the day.
Went for the tour around the home, then headed for the top. Was a humid day, but a few water flows along the way helped to cool things down. Got lost halfway with the signs making us even more confused but after some helpful directions we were heading back where we came. A great climb, and a great view afterwards.

Emailed north side quotation through.

Great hike, beautiful view.

I am emailing you the North side inscription and a photo.

I certainly worked for this one. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.
The staff at the museum tried to discourage us from going up to the tomb but as we said we were going they advised us to take the long trail. It was slippery, there were washed out sections and a couple of trees had fallen across the track that we had to straddle.
About 300m from the top I slipped and sprained my ankle. I was determined I was going to make it to the top and eventually got there sore and exhausted. It's a hard enough walk without having a bad ankle.
After a bit of a rest we headed back down via the long trail. It was slow going and what should have taken around 30 minutes took me about 2 hours to get back to the museum.

The requested information has been emailed.

Today, i go with my wife at the mount vaea and found the tomb.

TFTC 63jens

What an amazing adventure. I happened to go on the short route (so not recommended) and took the long route back down. It was an amazing view, a muddy hike, a few great laughs with locals on the trail, and a well deserved and refreshing water at the bottom. Thanks for bringing me here and placing this cache! I have been looking forward to doing this one for over a year now and am so happy to make it number #700. Email sent
Sorry for the late travel bug log, finally getting around to putting all the travel bugs and swag into the log that were sent down with me on my trip. Just got married and back to work, so now I actually have time to log each and every travel bug that made the trip there and back

This entry was edited by RTUMIN on Friday, 23 August 2013 at 03:15:48 UTC.

This entry was edited by RTUMIN on Friday, 23 August 2013 at 03:27:51 UTC.

We have been watching this cache for some time, but health issues, stopped us from travelling. Finally we got our act together and found our way to Aggie Grey's Resort. We wanted to stay in Aggie's Hotel in Apia, bit it was closed, because of damage from the recent cyclone. Mr S stayed there many times, when he was working in the National Hospital. Later in the week, Marina Grey gave us permission to look in the hotel. It is still beautiful and has so much charm, which most new hotels do not.

So, on 29 May we made our way into Apia by bus, up to the Vailima Museum by taxi and walked up the "short" track to Stephenson's tomb. It was still as I remember it 35 years ago. We found and copied the quotation and have emailed it to the CO. A young Samoan girl with a man from Papua New Guinea were there and she translated the quote, which I have since checked with the same book in English.

We took several pictures of the Travel Bugs, who wanted to come with us.

The walk up was very slippery and damaged from the cyclone had made the track malepelepe. We thought the "long" track, might be longer, but easier walking. Wrong! The cyclone damage was very bad there too and the track was blocked by trees in many places. We got back to Villa Vailima very tired and too late to see the museum.

Now we are home and logging our find, we see there are four more caches on Savai'i. It looks like we may have to return to Samoa.

Fa'a fatai Vailima FM

Après avoir passé quatre jours à Melbourne et quatre jours à Sydney, notre périple continue sur le Rhapsody of the Seas pour dix-huit jours en direction d'Hawaii...

Par une belle journée ensoleillée avec nos amis Jeanguysepromène nous avons pris un taxi pour se rendre au Musée mais avec toute la pluie tombée notre chauffeur nous a déconseillé d'aller dans la montagne... Merci de nous faire découvrir votre région en y installant des caches... Nous mettrons les photos plus tard...

Our english is not good but we try... Found it in a sunny day when we stop with Rhapsodie of the Seas... Thanks for the cache... We take a taxi for going to the muséum but the driver not recommanded to going to the mountain... We post the picture later...

Casper&Aero de Baie-Comeau, Québec, Canada

Trouvée par une belle journée ensoleillée avec nos amis Casper&Aero... Merci pour toutes ces caches qui nous font découvrir votre ville... MPLC

Found it in a sunny day with our friends Casper&Aero... Thanks for the caches...

Jgsepromene, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada

We are visiting samoa soon, but if the track is still unwalkable can we log the cache as found if we add a pic of us outside the museum??

(46) Logged with permission

Again, sent to Samoa for a work trip, best get looking for caches...

Great spot, great views.
Be prepared for a clamber though, the recent storms really played havoc with the track (still officially closed at the time of my visit, not that stopped anyone I saw)

20min to the top if you hurry and the park is closing...
Knocked it off a couple of times during the visit, good for the PT and the scenics.

TFTC.

Its almost impossible to get to the cache because the short track is severely damaged by landslides and trees blocking the way. I had to return after about 2/3 of the way.

So glad we had a cache to push us up the hill on such a (especially for us Alaskans) hot humid day. Because the view was great, and so was the feeling of accomplishment after all the cruise ship buffet trips, but the hike through the jungle was the best, beautiful and it really got your heart beating! TFTC!!

What a great climb to the top (albeit steep and a great workout if you take the short trail). Spectacular views from the top. Information sent to cache owner. A few pics attached as well. Thanks for a great cache!

While visiting Apia aboard the ms Oosterdam, Hid Pro Quo, goshhawk and myself had arranged to meet to attempt to climb to this cache.

We took a taxi ride to the RLS Museum and started the hike up the "easier" track. After a number of stops on the way to regain our breath and to admire the vegetation and views we finally arrived at the top.

As it was a public holiday on the island there were quite a few local youths who had made the trek up the hill (mostly on the shorter path). We also talked to another muggle who said he did the shorter hike 4 times a weeks for the exercise.

We decided to return back down the long way and then had problems locating a taxi as the museum was closed.

we finally arrived back sat the ship well before it was departing..

Thanks for the exercise and an excuse to climb the hill. It only took 3 days for my body to recover.

Off the ms Oosterdam for the day in beautiful Apia, Samoa. Caching today with Hid Pro Quo, Geokath, and Crew153. We took a taxi from the pier to the the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum and Grounds. What a beautiful location and onetime residence. We hiked the "easier" trail up and back down. One hour and 45 minutes up and one hour 25 minutes down. The trail was very slippery and treacherous in areas. I made it it about 1.5 miles in length and an 800+ ft altitude climb. Not really my idea of a 2 star terrain rating, but I survived the journey and it was well worth the effort. Great views along the trail and lots of beautiful flowers, birds and lizards. Also a spectacular view from the top, Obtained the info and e-mail on its way. Will post a photo of the four of us at the tomb. Thanks for providing this cache as a reason to come to this location. Goshhawk St Charles, MO USA

We found this one while our ship, the ms Oosterdam, was ported in Apia, Samoa. Goshhawk, GeoKath, Crew153 and myself took a cab out to the museum and then did the hike up to the grave. I really think this deserves a 4-star terrain rating (and my body agrees!) Nevertheless, we loved visiting the site and the views from the top! Answer sent and photo posted. Thanks for the cache!

It was a sweaty hike along the long way, but definitely worth. I needed more than hour, including some short rests. The view towards Savai'i is unfortunately blocked by dense foliage.
On top were some teenagers and soon it started to rain. I decided to use the long way back because the way was slippery.

Thanks for bringing me up to the very nice point!

Edit: got "Soifua" from the owner.

This entry was edited by flomigulau on Monday, 22 October 2012 at 18:36:20 UTC.

We asked some locals to translate the Samoan phrases. A real lady stopped at "ma le tagata ai vao", so we must ask a other one. Very interesting.
TFTC!
DH6AI

TFTC,
Sergiosi

Answers were sent via email. Once to the address given and once through the CO profile. Tremendous effort involved, undertaken a few months ago.

Today we went to the interesting museum of Robert Luis Stevenson. After that we went for the short steep hike to Stevenson´s tomb.
It was quite strenuous but still we were lucky, it didn´t rain.
TFTC
Klara&Werner

Found by geo-daughter while in Samoa on a medical elective.
Involved a long walk from the Outrigger Hotel, 7km round trip mostly in the rain. Was a magic place to visit with beautiful views at the top and the refreshing swim in the waterfall at the end was very special. Took 15min up the short route and 30min to come down the long one. Very well sign posted.
TFTC

We arrived in Apia, picked up our rental car, dropped our gear at our hotel just down the road and then headed straight up to this cache. We chose the shorter, steeper route up the hill, mainly because it looked like the better condition path (less slippery roots) - it was hard work in the oppressive heat and humidity, but we made it. Took a heap of photos and admired the view from the top before heading back down. It rained on us a bit on the way down, but we didn't mind as it cooled the temperature down a bit. Our first cache find in Samoa. TFTC!!!

Very Pretty view from the top.

The Freezer Mice strike again!!!

Over in Samoa (very briefly) and had a day spare... what to do I wonder?
Nice wee walk up to the tomb, and not a bad view to be had at the top either.
Information retrieved and e-mailed to cache owner.
TFTC.

Great hike to the top although I did get hot and sweaty due to the heat. However well worth it with a nice view of the surrounding area.
TFTC

Short way up, long way down. Lots of energetic types jogging past us on the way up.
TB visit

TFTC

Took the short way up. Was slippery from the rain the day before. Very nice spot. TFTC

Visiting Samoa from Australia on business with two colleagues. We had an afternoon free so decided to do the walk to Robert Louis Stevenson's tomb.

A taxi delivered us to the trail head with instructions to return after 2 hours. Despite the earlier thunderstorm the track was in good condition. We made our way to the junction with the short track and the long track and decided to take the long (and less strenuous) track up and return via the shorter track. The walk up was very enjoyable - lots of interesting plants and birds to see. We arrived at the tomb and stopped to catch our breath before I gathered the required information. Thanks to a previous logger we came prepared with lots of insect repellent to keep the mossies away, and they were certainly thick around us.

The taxi driver had told us to check out the insignias on the plaque with the poem, and to guess what they meant. So after gathering the information for the cache we discussed what they could mean before heading back down.

The walk down the short track gave our leg muscles a good workout, despite several stops to admire the red-headed honey-eaters that flew in to drink from flowers close to us on the track.

We got back to the trail head and the taxi driver turned up shortly after. We gave the taxi driver our suggestions about the insignias on the tomb but were way off. The taxi driver had to tell us what they meant!

Thanks for a very enjoyable geocache in beautiful Samoa.

Thanks for showing this place.

e-mail sent with the answer

TFTC

Greetings from PtehroGeo

What a great place! Started by visiting the museum and then we took the shortcut uphill. Well worth the effort, excellent views from the top. Took the longer way downhill - but it was as muddy as the other track.
Sent email to the owner!

Went while on holiday to samoa. Very hot there!! interesting geocache

Enjoy the Museum a lot too

[This entry was edited by TreMichLan on Tuesday, February 03, 2009 at 3:13:35 AM.]

cool had a tour of the museum a very nice tribute

Took the long way up and the shorter way down. I was glad to have a walking stick. View from the top superb. I wrote down what I was supposed to and a Samoan woman was also at the top. She translated for me (was that cheating?). We got back to the car park at 6.05 - gate locked! We should have parked in the 'open' lot instead of the gated carpark. We did get the gate opened (with a little 'hand-greasing'). Another geocache experience!
Wish there were a few more caches around here. We took a 12-day, 300+km cycle trip around Savai'i and spent another week exploring Upolo. Great experience. Loved getting 'into' the culture and staying with locals.
TFTC
Early Rizers

A great site, if a steep climb. The house was busy with a cruise ship - see photo.
I also looked for the travel bug at Vanvleets site, but only found rubbish. He says "it should still be there. It was in a small size container that we colored black. It had held hard candies. It was plastic with a yellow lid. It was just behind the seawall under a flat white rock. It wasn't white like a quartz rock, more like a speckled flat slab piece of rock. I remember when I put it under, that there was a possibility of it slipping kind of low under the rock, so you'd have to reach under pretty good."
TFTC

Thanks for the translation and the lovley walk

Very beautiful spot. Took some time to get to it. Thanks. We planted a cache on the island at these coordinates:
S 13 49.928
W 171 45.654
Unfortunately, it cannot be listed. There is a travelbug in there we'd like to get back off the island. The cache is under a white rock on the sea side of the ocean wall across the street from Aggie Grey's in Apia. If you can rescue our travel bug, we would appreciate it.

with TreMichLan

Enjoyed the walk - we went up the long way, which took more than 60 minutes, then down the short way. The only cache in Samoa!
Have emailed the samoan quotation

After asking the helpful people at the Vailima estate about where I had to go, I had to re-group and get another cacher with me to do the hike. They even let me lock up my bike behind the estate! After coming down we jetted down the main road at 35 mph! Thanks for the cache! What an awesome view!

Had to buy a copy of treasure island while visiting Samoa. He sure had a nice house!

After many researches in the internet I found the right answer. Now I knew RLS much better, and I´m looking forward to read "The Treasure Island" again.

Many thanks for this interesting cache!

Greetings from Germany!

Roland

[This entry was edited by roli_29 on Monday, January 16, 2006 at 10:13:49 PM.]

We found this virtual cache because someone has had placed a virtual TB in one of our caches.
So we've read the logs of this virtual TB and encountered this cache.

After doing some research, we got the complete history about RLS.

Since we've been approaching our 500th cachelog, we decided to dedicate this event to the memory of RLS, writer of Treasure Island and many other stories we enjoyed to read during our life.
If someday our pathes - from more than 16,000 kilometres away - will lead there, we'll visit this location anywhere.

Thank you very much for this impressive virtual cache.
Our minds will watch it from now for ever.

With greetings from stetimm team.

#500

Dropping off a virtual TB from "As North as it gets" (Alert, Nunavut, Canada)

Virtual TB (3) drop - moved to a warmer climate from Alert, Nunavut, Canada

Virtual TB drop

Thanks to internet...

On a 4 day trip to the Island found it. Great walk and glad I took alot of water with me

Drop off Spooky TB

Wow what a climb to the top, take a water bottle and your camera as the view is pretty cool. The weather is very humid and the path steep and muddy in some areas, but well worth the effort.

Cheers
Daniel Organ

Found it on a holiday from Tonga. That is one heck of a climb. The Vailima estate is very interesting, especially as it became the German consulate, NZ Administration builiding and even Samoan head of state residence. The climb was a bugger since it had rained the night before!!!!

We are on a virtual flying trip around the world with our virtual travel bug named Spider Wings. It started as a simulated Cessna 182 airplane. But recently we've started using other types of aircraft as the virtual availability of Cessnas seems to have wained somewhat. Our goal is to find at least one cache in each country we visit that is a good representation of what we know (or come to learn from our travel and related study) of that country. In the process we are getting a good idea of how many caches are out in the far reaches of the world. We hope you won't mind our virtual passage near your cache and will even enjoy the virtual "photo" of the area that we'd like to post. We'd also love to hear back from you regarding the photo and how well the simulator's coordinates did with locating your cache, and how the scenery compares to real life. We realize the simulator can't show everything.

Since our last cache in Fiji on the 15th of March, we flew north to Tuvalu, Nauru, then through Northwestern Kiribati, to Howland and Baker (US Islands), back into Kiribati (Pheonix Islands), south through Tokelau, to Samoa. Sounds simple enough right? Well... actually we had a few mishaps along the way.

On our final approach to a landing in the shoreline brush on Baker Island, I let the forward speed get too low and I put one of our landing gear in the wave tops. I was able to pull back out of the water but then the speed was really too low and we went in again... this time we sunk the Vega clear the wings and had to scramble out for air.

In the virtual weeks after, we managed to winch the plane ashore, dry out the electronics and engine, steal some juice from a nearby weather station's solar collectors, finally make radio contact, get new prop and plugs on the way, and had the Vega ready to go again on April 3rd.

The very next landing, on McKeen Island was good but while taxiing through the field, I hit the brakes too hard and nosed the engine into the dirt.... radioed for yet another prop and lost more time making repairs.

Then... in Tokeleu we looked long and hard for solid land, seeing only coral reefs under shallow light blue waters. Finally we spotted a tiny island... did I say tiny? It looked about twice as long and three times the length of our plane and I knew a landing would be impossible. But as it is our agenda to at least touch each country I decided to do a short touch and go. Came in low and easy... touched down just right and was giving it gas to get back in the air... when I realized I'd misjudged the open space between the weather station and the north shore... the weather station caught the left wing and stopped us cold. Even if I were able to make the necessary virtual repairs, there was not nearly enough room for a takeoff. We ended up getting rescued by a sea plane that we made a deal on and turned the wrecked Vega over to the pilot for salvage rights.

Then on that flight we ran out of gas coming in for a water landing at Swain's Island (American Samoa) and had to have fuel sent out on a fishing boat.

But finally we made it to Samoa for a more than welcome real airport late last night. This morning we took off early and easily located the virtual location of your cache. RLS would surely appreciate the adventures incurred getting to this point. Thanks for letting us pay a virtual visit and for letting us relate our adventures here. - ST, Vernal, Utah, USA

Dropping A Virtual TB in a Virtual Cache. Thanks.
bgf

thanks for this riddle, it was very interesting to look so far...................

greetings chris

More diificult to find the cache webpage then tha cache. A lovely walk up. Note to self: Next time, bring water.

Logged with permission. I visted this site several years ago before I took up geocaching as a hobby. My lasting recollection is that is was extremely hot that day and I left my water bottle behind!

Had some help from an old Samoan friend with this one. No worries, have fulfilled the requirements