Upolu
— where the trade wind takes the heat off the afternoon.
Not only on a wall.
“The larger of Samoa's two main islands, with Apia on the north coast and a long sand beach at Lalomanu on the south. Robert Louis Stevenson is buried on Mt Vaea above the house he built at Vailima. The To Sua Ocean Trench fills and empties with the tide. Roads cut between the two coasts through plantation country and small villages with painted churches.
Upolu, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Upolu is the most populous of the Samoan islands, about 1,125 square kilometres in area, with a population near 143,000. Apia, the national capital, sits on its northern coast. Faleolo International Airport handles flights from Auckland and Sydney on the western tip. The island's volcanic spine rises to Mt Fito at about 1,100 metres. A road circles the coast, and a small number of cross-island routes cut south through the interior. Savai'i, the larger but less populated sister island, lies a short ferry crossing to the west.
The To Sua Ocean Trench at Lotofaga is the most visited swimming spot on the south coast, a thirty-metre deep collapsed lava tube that fills with seawater through a hidden channel and is reached by a long wooden ladder. Papase'ea Sliding Rocks above Apia are a small chain of basalt waterslides smoothed by the river. Lalomanu beach runs almost two kilometres along the southeast shore and was rebuilt after the 2009 tsunami. Coral reef fringes most of the south coast, with deep passes at Aufaga and Aleipata.
Most visitors fly into Faleolo International Airport, about forty kilometres west of Apia, and rent a car or join a transfer. Driving is on the left, a switch made in 2009 to align with Australia and New Zealand. The Robert Louis Stevenson Museum at Vailima sits five kilometres south of Apia, with a trail up Mt Vaea to his grave taking about an hour each way. Sunday is widely observed across the island, with most businesses closed and a strong tradition of church and umu lunches at home.