At about lunch time we said our goodbyes from the met service and decided to go for a drive. We figured we had about 4-5 hours of daylight so we decided to drive around one half of the island.
We headed off east, along the Main East Coast Road. It was quite busy at first. The road was dotted with houses and villages all the way to Falepuna, so I’d imagine most of that was local traffic.
The road got quieter as we headed away from the coast and into the hills. At the junction of Richardson Road, we turned east towards Samusa and Lalomanu.
The road was pretty well maintained, and was fully sealed with maybe a pothole here or two. So quiet was the road that we actually managed to get some speed in some sections, maxing out at around 80 km/h. But most of the way we travelled at a leisurely pace, stopping along the way every so often to take photos of the surroundings.
In general, folks either didn’t notice us taking photos, or if they did were not bothered with us doing so, but when we stopped at Lalomanu, which had a lovely beach, some locals got a little upset with us doing so. They asked us to delete those photos we took from our camera, which we obliged. We were a little taken aback but it was the right thing to do, lest they end up on someones website.
After reaching Lalomanu, we travelled west along the south coast road until we got to the Cross Island Road. From there crossed the summit (the same place we stopped the day before) and heading back to Apia and the hotel.