JUSTIN WALLEY
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages
Search

Rugby World Cup 2011 New Zealand

And adventures in the South Pacific

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Pulemelei

22/11/2011

1 Comment

 
Picture
Monday, November 14 (Day 76)
Aganoa Beach Retreat & Rainforest Reserve – Pulemelei – Aganoa (Savai’i, Samoa)

This place is in danger of becoming Mango Bay 2.0. My intended one night stay became two yesterday and, despite my best intentions to leave this morning; I will now stay for a third evening. Time is a-running-out though. This time next week I leave Samoa and begin my long and arduous three-day journey home from one side of the globe to the other; from perpetual summer to gloomy winter.

Ulrika and I are off in search of the Pulemelei mound, said to be the largest ancient structure in all of Polynesia. If this fact is true then you might expect this to be top of the pops when it comes to local tourist attractions, and yet it is proving pretty damned impossible to find out any useful information about this centuries-old site.

A record four cars and trucks pass us on the road before the fifth stops to give us a lift. There are few places where hitchhiking is as safe and easy as Samoa. When we are dropped off, near the well signposted Afu-A-Au waterfalls, we soon discover that there is absolutely no signage for Pulemelei. The driver is confident though that we should follow a nearby track towards the river and keep to the pathways from there. After a few hundred metres, a young bandana-wearing lad, accompanied by a well-trained hunting dog and brandishing a machete, appears seemingly out of nowhere and asks us for some cash for our visit to the mound. Ulrika is great company; she’s thoughtful and a really good laugh, but I wish sometimes she’d go with the flow a bit more instead of questioning absolutely everything. She’s suggesting to this lad that he might be a fraud and perhaps we shouldn’t give him the cash. I mean, come on, he’s holding a machete and he’s got a dog with him that could tear us limb from limb. He’s asking us for three quid between the two of us. If he’s a crook I think he could do a bit better than demanding three of Her Majesty the Queen’s pounds off of us. 

Our hike lasts for a good four or five kilometres until the path narrows, passes first through a coconut grove and then an overgrown track of bright, colourful flowers and weeds. We ascend some steep rocks and, almost without realising it, we are stood atop of the mound. This is crazy. This structure must be sixty metres square and, aside from its summit, it is entirely overgrown with thick green weeds and bushes. Right in the centre of the mound, two gorgeous mango trees, heavily laden with fruit, wrap their roots around the black volcanic stones below. I don’t think we passed a single mango tree on the route here. Strange, that these two attractive trees should make this mound home. This is proper Indiana Jones stuff. I mean, it doesn’t appear that this pyramid-type structure has been properly excavated. From the summit there are commanding views of the distant sea and, to our north-west, we can just make out the partly hidden peaks of Savai’i’s tallest mountains: Mount Maugamua, Mata’aga, and 1866-metre high Mount Silisili (Yes, the tallest mountain in all of Samoa is called ‘Silly Silly’). These mountains are all located on a high plateau, which does an exceedingly good job of concealing most of their delights from the world below and thus giving them a touch of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World. Below the ‘mound’ there is, I would say, around one hundred square metres worth of land that is overgrown with nothing more than thick weeds and beyond that is a coconut grove. Use your imagination and you can picture this pyramid devoid of foliage, towering above a flat area of land below. I just don’t get it. With around 100 labourers, they could clear the pyramid in less than a week and quickly get to work on clearing the flat area in front of it. What you would then have is a legendary hidden pyramid rising up into the heavens; a nation’s leading tourist attraction that would encourage many of the thousands of visitors to Samoa’s ‘Upolu island, who never make it across the Apolima strait, to visit Savai’i. The only information I have, thus far, about this place is that it is one of a reputed 150 ‘star mounds’ that have so far been discovered throughout Samoa and American Samoa. Many leading archaeologists have only recently become aware of these Samoan structures, and dozens of star mounds remain unexcavated. Indulging our imaginations for an hour or so, Ulrika and I finally leave this very special place and set off back to Aganoa to enjoy my final afternoon and evening of simple pleasures there. The very first car that passes stops and the nice Samoan couple inside drop us off at the entrance to the rainforest reserve.

Picture

I think this is one of the nicest beaches I’ve ever had the pleasure of sunbathing on. You can totally relax here, safe in the knowledge, that nobody and no creature will ever come and disturb you. The sun has got his hat on again today and the water, although noticeably colder than it was in Fiji, is still well above 20 degrees and an absolute pleasure to swim in. I spend a good half hour playing a game of ‘tag ‘with a dozen curious fish with short memories. This mob of beige and white fish, one of an astounding 900 different varieties of fish living off these islands, seem absolutely fascinated by my presence and regularly venture within a few centimetres of my legs. What I do is to try and trick them into the shoreline where I attempt to tag at least one of the fish before they swim off. They never tire of this game because they always forget that they’ve played it five seconds later. Glass Knee Charlie returns from his latest surf on the treacherous reef and tells me he’s just spotted two reef sharks out there.
Picture
Picture

In the early evening, shortly before sundown, the family that run the surf retreat give me a lift in the back of their truck to the Salelologa wharf so that I can get some cash out from the ATM to pay them for my stay here. This jump off point for inter-island ferries, along with the tourist town of Manase, are the only two places on the whole of this island where you can access cash.

The Australian owner, his Samoan wife and a couple of their relatives are off shopping for provisions, including fresh bread for tomorrow’s breakfast. It’s a gorgeous journey in the back of the van, waving to locals; the wind in my face. On the return leg, I ride in the front with the Aussie owner and he tells me about life in Samoa. He’s been living here for 15 years after a five-year stint in Fiji prior to that (where he says life was even more idyllic before the first of the Fijian military coups in the 1980s). Things have changed very little here during his time on Savai’i. The locals remain friendly and governed by family and village life. Crime is virtually unheard of and most families are almost entirely self-sufficient. It is only the past few years’ huge increases in fuel prices that have really made life more difficult. Fortunately, the locals are not too reliant on rice, which has increased in price by 100 per cent in two years, but when you earn 2 Tala/hour (roughly 60 pence), your money doesn’t stretch too far. (We have the radio switched on during our conversation, and I suddenly overhear some news about thousands of people ‘occupying’ the streets of Philadelphia and Detroit. I’ve heard virtually no news during the past five weeks and couldn’t tell you what the hell the ‘news people’ are talking about.) 

I honestly don’t know anybody that has cancer on this island, the Aussie owner tells me. Back home, every second or third person I know seems to be getting cancer or needs open heart surgery. But here, very few people get really sick. I don’t know what they are doing to people in the western world with the food, water and the air; the radiation levels in some places in the United States are making young kids ill. 

Sometimes, it really seems like the powers that be in the developed world have some kind of agenda to kill us all off. It makes me laugh when I meet people who still believe their governments are there to ‘look after them’. All of the food I’ve consumed on this island comes from the local soil, trees, bushes and animals. Those that eat fish, enjoy a bountiful supply of fresh, tasty meals straight from the ocean.  It is all absolutely organic and free range…and free. I’ve never tasted fruit that tastes as good as it does in the Pacific. And I can also say that I haven’t seen a single chemtrail (the crap from aircraft that hangs in the European skies for hours) up in the heavens during my five weeks in the Pacific. Don’t believe the nonsense they tell you that chemtrails are natural and are caused by commercial airliners: watch a normal commercial airliner and you will notice that its vapour trail begins to disappear within seconds. Chemtrails are created by other aircraft that are purposely filling our otherwise clean air with metals, toxins and poisonous chemicals. They hang there in the sky and gradually drop to earth, poisoning each and every one of us that breathe them in. You don’t think your government would do that to you? Well, question then why in some parts of the UK, Canada and the US the authorities purposely contaminate the population’s drinking water with highly toxic, poisonous fluoride. No, it doesn’t keep your teeth healthy and white. That’s a lie. The fluoride in the water poisons and dumbs down the population. Why would the government poison its own people through the food you eat, the water you drink and the air you breathe? It wouldn’t have anything to do with the global pharmaceutical industry would it? Or the multi-billion dollar private health care and insurance industries? Or Eugenics? Or population reduction? 

I don’t know. You tell me. If I were you, I’d leave Europe and come and live in the Pacific instead.

1 Comment



    Photos, stories and videos from the New Zealand 2011 Rugby World Cup & the sunny paradises of Fiji and Samoa


    Picture

     

    Picture
    Picture


    Archives
    Access all the blogs from New Zealand, Fiji & Samoa by clicking on the archived months below:

    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    June 2011

      Contact 
      ​More Than a Game:

    Submit

    Key word search 

    All
    100 Pig Fine
    2000 Fiji Coup
    2003 Rugby World Cup
    2009 Tsunami
    200 Billion Galaxies
    2010 Fifa World Cup
    2011 Copa America
    2011 Rugby World Cup
    2014 Fifa World Cup Play Offssamoan Football Team
    2014 Fifa World Cup Qualifiers
    23 December Earthquake New Zealand
    30 December 2011
    4 July 1892
    8.1 Magnitude Earthquake
    Abel Tasman
    Aborigines
    Accents On The Park
    A Clockwork Orange
    Adam Neate
    Afu-A-Au Waterfalls
    Agadoo
    Aganoa
    Aganoa Beach Retreat
    Aggie Grey's
    'aiga
    Air Pacific
    Alduous Huxley
    Alofaaga Blowholes
    American Iguana
    Americanization
    American Samoa
    American Samoan Football Team
    Anarchist
    Anglo-saxon
    Antarctica
    Anthony Burgess
    Antony Micaleff
    Apia
    Apolima Strait
    Argentina
    Argentina Rugby
    Argentina V Scotland
    Armistice Day
    Arthur Conan Doyle
    Asau
    Auckland
    Auckland Airport Motel
    Auckland Horse Racing
    Auckland International Airport
    Australia
    Australia V Usa
    Avalanche City
    Ayia Napa
    Azuri
    Bahai Religion
    Bangkok
    Banksy
    Banyan Tree
    Barefoot Lodge
    Base Hostel
    Bath
    Bbc
    Beachcomber
    Beijing
    Bill And Ted
    Bjorn Heidenstrom
    Black Brown White
    Blowholes
    Bournemouth
    Brazil Carnival
    Bread Fruit
    Bring Back The Sun
    British Empire
    Bros
    Buenos Aires
    Buffalo Bar
    Bula
    Bure
    California
    Canal 4
    Captain Cook Cruises
    Captain James Cook
    Caqalai Island
    Castaways
    Cathay Pacific
    Catholic
    Catlins
    Cayman Islands
    Cemeteries Of London
    Central Bank Of Samoa
    Chemtrails
    Chicago
    Chickpea Curry
    Chris Ashton
    Christchurch
    Christchurch Earthquake
    Christian Congregational Church
    Christmas 2011
    Coldplay
    Conde Nast Magazine
    Contepomi
    Cook Islands
    Cook Straits
    Copa America Blog
    Coral Coast
    Coral Reef
    Coral View Resort
    Cork
    Cornwall
    Coventry
    Crab Racing
    Cricket
    Croydon
    Curio Bay
    Daily Mail
    David Choe
    Daweqa
    Da World Famous Craterman
    December 21 2012
    Denarau Port
    Desenchantee
    Dodgy Birds
    Dolphins
    Dormitories
    Drawaqa Island
    Dunedin
    Dusky Lodge
    Dusky Lodge Backpackers
    Earthquakes
    Easter Island
    Eat Pray Love
    Eden Park
    Ends In The Ocean
    England 67 Romania 3
    England Rugby Team
    England V Argentina
    England V France
    England V Georgia
    England V Romania
    England V Scotland
    Environmental Disaster
    Estonia
    Eugenics
    Euro Breakup
    European Championships
    European Football Championships
    Existence
    Fa'afafine
    Faafaine
    Fa'a-samoa
    Fa’a-Samoa – The Samoan Way Of Life
    Face Paint
    Faile
    Falealupo
    Faroe Islands
    Fast Show Sketch
    Female Sex Tourism
    Fiafia
    Fidel Castro
    Fifa World Cup Blog
    Fijee Experience
    Fiji
    Fijian Military Coups
    Fiji Gold
    Fiji Independence
    Fiji Time
    Fiji V Samoa
    Finland
    Fireball
    Fjordland National Park
    Fluoride
    Fox Glacier
    Fractional Reserve Banking Bomb
    France 17 New Zealand 37
    France V New Zealand
    Franz Josef Glacier
    Franz Josef Yha
    Franz Jozef Yha
    French Polynesia
    Fruit Bats
    Ft
    Galway
    Gary Speed
    Geckos
    George Orwell
    Georgia V Romania
    Ghost Town
    Global Pharmaceutical Industry
    Gobi Desert
    Greymouth
    Guam
    Guatemala
    Haka
    Hamilton
    Hammerhead Shark
    Harry Enfield
    Hawaii
    Heart Disease
    Hillary Clinton
    Hindu
    Hornets
    Hotel California
    Huntsman Spider
    Hyatt Regency
    Iceland
    Incheon
    Indiana Jones
    Indian Food
    Indonesia
    Inter City
    International Dateline
    International Date Line
    International Federation Of Netball
    Into The Wild
    Into The Wild Movie Trailer
    Iran
    Irb
    Ireland V Russia
    Italy V Usa
    Jack Daniels
    Jane's Fales
    J D Salinger
    Jersey
    Jet Star
    John O'callaghan
    Jonny Wilkinson
    Kaikoura
    Kaikoura Beach
    Kaikoura Peninsula
    Kaliningrad
    Kate Ryan
    Kava
    Kea
    Kiev
    Kirikiti
    Kiwi Experience
    Ko Pha Ngan
    Korean Air
    Ko Samui
    Lady Boy
    Lady Samoa Ii
    Lake Baikal
    Lake Taupo
    Lano
    Leauva
    Lebanon
    Leicester
    Leonardo Dicaprio
    Levuka
    Levuka Masonic Lodge
    Lighthouse Family
    Lomaiviti
    Lonely Planet
    Lord Of The Rings
    Los Pumas
    Lost World
    M25
    Machete
    Manase
    Mango Bay
    Mango Trees
    Maninoa
    Mantaray Island
    Manu Bay
    Maori
    Mark Cueto
    Marlon Brando
    Matai
    Mathew Vaea
    Maverick
    Max Keiser
    Mcdonalds
    Megabus
    Melbourne
    Merchandise
    Meteor
    Mexican Standoff
    Mike Tindall
    Milford Sound
    Mitre Peak
    Money Laundering
    Mongol Rally
    Monty Python
    More Than A Game
    Morethanagame.info
    Morris Hedstrom Trading Store
    Moscow
    Mount Fuji
    Mount Matavanu
    Mount Silisili
    Muslim
    Mylene Farmer
    Nadi
    Nadi Bay
    Nanuya Lailai
    National Express
    National Geographic
    Naviti Islands
    Navoti Landing
    Neil Diamond
    Nelson
    Neo-liberals
    New Caledonia
    New Zealand
    New Zealand Bands
    New Zealand General Election 2011
    New Zealand Sheep
    New Zealand Wine
    Ngarunui Beach
    Ngauruhoe
    Niue
    Nomads
    Nomads Hostel
    North Island
    North Korea
    Nuggets Point
    Obesity
    Occupy Detroit
    Occupy Movement
    Oi You! Collection
    Otago Stadium
    Pacific Ocean
    Pagan
    Papua New Guinea
    Paradise Islands
    Patterson's Shipping
    Paul Insect
    Perito Moreno
    Philippines
    Picton
    Poland
    Polynesia
    Population Reduction
    Postcards From Heaven
    Pride Of The Pacific
    Prince Charles
    Projects We Like
    Pukekura
    Pulemelei Mound
    Punakaiki
    Punakaiki Beach Hostel
    Queenstown
    Queen Street
    Raffles Hotel Singapore
    Rafting
    Raglan
    Rainforest
    Reality
    Rebuilding Christchurch
    Reef Sharks
    Rena
    Robert Louis Stevenson
    Romanian Rugby Team
    Rotorua
    Royal Hotel
    Ruapehu
    Rugby World Cup
    Rugby World Cup Blog
    Russ Abbott
    Russia V Italy
    Rwc Daily September 10
    Rwc Daily September 13
    Rwc Daily September 14
    Rwc Daily September 15
    Rwc Daily September 16
    Rwc Daily September 17
    Rwc Daily September 18
    Rwc Daily September 19
    Rwc Daily September 20
    Rwc Daily September 21
    Rwc Daily September 22
    Rwc Daily September 23
    Rwc Daily September 24
    Rwc Daily September 25
    Rwc Daily September 26
    Rwc Daily September 27
    Rwc Daily September 28
    Rwc Daily September 8
    Rwc Daily September 9
    Sacred Heart Church
    Salelologa
    Samoa
    Samoa Loses A Day
    Samoan Bank Notes
    Samoan Pyramid
    Samoan Reggae Christmas Rap
    Samoan Rugby Team
    Samoans
    Samoan Slap Dancing
    Sangatoka
    Satan
    Savaii
    Scotland V Georgia
    Sea Breeze Resort
    Sea Lions
    Seals
    Sea Stacks
    Self Sufficient
    Seoul
    Sex Tourism
    Shanghai
    Sheep Shearing
    Silvio Berlusconi
    Sipi Tau
    Siva
    Skiing
    Slap Dancing
    Smugglers
    Snowboard
    Solidarnosc
    South Africa
    South Africa 87 Namibia 0
    South African Shanty Town
    South Africa V Samoa
    South America
    South Island
    South Pacific
    South Pacific Chief
    South Pacific Clams
    Soviet 5-year Plans
    Speights
    Spirit Of The Pacific
    Ss Mauritania
    Stanley Kubrick
    Star Mounds
    State Propaganda
    St. Helen's Rugby
    Stopwaroniran.org
    Submarine
    Sulu
    Surf
    Surfing
    Surviving A Tsunami
    Suva
    Svalbard
    Switzerland
    Sydney
    Tajikistan
    Tanu
    Tasmania
    Tasman Sea
    Tatiana Motel
    Taufua
    Taupou
    Tavewa Island
    Te Anau
    Teletubby
    Te Papa National Museum
    Texas
    Thailand
    The All Blacks
    The Beach
    The Catcher In The Rye
    The Catlins
    The Cook Islands
    The Guardian
    The Kennedy Regime
    The Maori
    The Mayans
    The North Sea
    The Pentecostal Church
    The Philippines
    The Shirt 2010
    The Solomon Islands
    The Specials
    Tierra Del Fuego
    Tim Nice But Dim
    Toby Flood
    Tokelau
    Tonga
    Tongariro
    Tongariro Crossing
    Tonga V Japan
    To Sua Ocean Trench
    Touch Rugby
    Trafalgar Park
    Travellers International Airport Motel
    Turangi
    Tuvalu
    Uefa Euro 2012
    Uk Public Sector Strike
    Ukraine
    Ukraine 2012 Blog
    Ulan Bator
    Upolu
    Usa
    U S Turkey
    Uzbekistan
    Vailima
    Vancouver
    Vanuatu
    V-bar
    Vietnam
    Viti Levu
    Wales V Fiji
    Wales V France
    Wales V Namibia
    Wallis & Futuna
    Walt Disney Cartoon
    Wanaka
    Wanaka Yha
    Waterfalls
    Website Optimization
    Wellington
    Welsh World Cup Squad
    Wer Wenn Nicht Wir
    Whale
    When Will I Be Famous?
    Wi-fi
    Wish Lists
    World
    World Trade Organisation
    W T O
    Yellow-eyed Penguins
    Yellow Sea
    Y-not Bar

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages