The Real Samoa! Trivia Quiz

Answer: In the South Pacific Ocean, near Tonga

The Samoan Islands are in the South Pacific, about 530 km from Tonga, and 2,900 km from New Zealand. They are about half-way between Australia and Hawaii, though very definitely not in the Coral Sea, and about 13° south of the Equator.

Answer: Western Samoa

The people of American Samoa still like to refer to Samoa as "Western Samoa" in order to distinguish the two groups of islands. On the other hand, American Samoa is sometimes called Eastern Samoa!

Answer: New Zealand

Samoa was the first Pacific island country to attain independence. Samoa still retains very close ties with New Zealand, and there are many Samoans living in New Zealand, especially in Auckland's southern suburbs. Since 1899, Samoa had been a German colony, but on 29 August 1914, New Zealand troops landed and seized the islands unopposed, having been asked to perform this "great and urgent imperial service" by Britain.

Answer: Apia

Apia is actually 40km from Faleolo International Airport, which is one of Samoa's main links to the outside world, along with the Port of Apia, which is the major harbour for the islands. Pago Pago in American Samoa is not actually a city, having a much smaller population than Apia. Avarua is the capital of the Cook Islands, and Nuku'alofa is the capital of Tonga.

Answer: Savai'i

Savai'i is 1,718 km2 in area, and Upolu is 1,125 km2 in area. All the other islands of the thirteen official islands in the Samoan Archipelago are smaller than this--some much smaller.

Answer: Vulcanism

The evidence of volcanic action is most obvious on the island of Savai'i. There you can see the lava fields from the Mt Matavanu eruption in 1911, right beside the road as you tour the island.

Answer: Watching an active volcano

Yes, there really is an ancient pyramid in Samoa. It's called the Pulemelei Mound or the Star Pyramid, and it's on the island of Savai'i. It's believed to be the oldest structure in Polynesia, and was built between 1100 and 1400. There is a rainforest too, mainly at the western end of Savai'i. There are, however, no active volcanoes on Samoa, although there are dormant cones and old lava fields. An active volcano named Savai'i is located in Samoa but it hasn't erupted since 1911.

Answer: It was the last place in the world to see the sunset

Falealupo is the westernmost point in Samoa, and is only 20km from the International Dateline. The village was celebrated as "the last place on Earth to enter the new millennium" until midnight 29th December 2011. Samoa skipped a day at midnight and moved to 31st December 2011 so that it was on the same side of the International Date Line as Australia and New Zealand, its main trading partners -- local time did not change, just the day.

Before the change it was 21 hours behind Australia and 23 hours behind New Zealand (which usually meant it was a day ahead). After the change it was three hours ahead of Australia and just one hour ahead of New Zealand, but on the same day.

Answer: Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson lived in Samoa from 1890 to his death in 1894. He was beloved by the Samoan people, and they gave him the name "Tusitala" which means "teller of tales".

Answer: Tsunami

The tsunami was caused by an 8.0 magnitude earthquake on the northern edge of the Tonga Trench, about 200km south of Samoa. The tsunami struck the south coast of the Samoan islands, causing waves at least 3m high, wrecking villages and coastal resorts alike.

Some of the worst damage was at the village of Lalomanu, on the south-east of Upolu, which I was saddened to hear since I remember the beach there as being one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited.