KEY POINTS:
One of the most revered buildings in Samoa, and on the lists of most visitors, is the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum in the house that was the Scottish writer's last home. Just before my visit I discovered that one of my forebears was in on the ground floor.
Stevenson and his previously married wife, Fanny, set up home on the main island, Upolo, for the sake of his health in 1890 and lived in grand style until his death from a brain haemorrhage four years later.
He was buried on nearby Mt Vaea and visitors who trek the 45 minutes to the top - best done in the early morning - have great views of Apia and the harbour.
The house, Villa Vailima, was later sold to a German trader who added a wing. It then became the home of the German Governor. After independence in 1962 it was the official residence of the Samoan Head of State until hurricane damage made it unsafe.
To the rescue came a group of Americans who set up the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum/Preservation Foundation, leased the house and surrounding land for one coconut a year and spent US$2 million ($2.7 million) on restoration. It was opened in December 1994, on the centenary of Stevenson's death.
However, back when the fragile writer bought the 127ha and built his home with wide verandahs to catch the breezes, his neighbour across the "road" was one Richard Hetherington Carruthers, barrister and solicitor in charge of all land transfers, and my great-grandfather.
While in Apia I searched for documents relating to Stevenson's land purchase which carried the R.H. Carruthers signature, but found only dead ends. More than one family claims connections with the land sale and museum officials say there is someone in Samoa who says he has the papers and will reveal them "for a price". The museum would love to get their hands on the documents but now it's a mystery.
I had known Carruthers was mentioned a couple of times in Stevenson's Vailima Letters but it was not until just before my trip that I came across another book, Our Samoan Adventure, excerpts from the diaries of Stevenson and Fanny which details their day-to-day lives at Vailima among servants clad in tartan lavalava, pigs, dogs, bad spirits and political upheaval.
They lived well. Oysters were shipped on ice from New Zealand, Bordeaux wine was brought by the cask from France and bottled at Vailima. But, said Fanny, "it seemed an odd thing that there should not be a spade nor rake for sale in a town where there would be no difficulty in finding the best quality of champagne, to say nothing of all the materials for mixed drinks".
When the big house was completed it had five bedrooms, a library, a ballroom large enough to accommodate 100 dancers, and the only fireplaces in Samoa. The Stevensons shipped 73 tonnes of furniture from England.
Great-grandfather was apparently a help to Fanny in those early days. "Mr Carruthers has helped us choose a site for the kitchen garden. ... Finding I had chosen a too sunny spot for lettuce, I searched for a better place and found one up the road Mr Carruthers made ... Mr Carruthers has been here, fetching a little root of mint and some more currants of the grenadilla."
And it was not only his gardening skills that impressed: "He is almost the only man with the education of a gentleman here."
The kitchen garden is long gone, as is the original kitchen, but there's a small building in its place and guides point out that it was after coming inside from there that Stevenson collapsed and soon after died.
It is a tribute to those who created the museum that visitors say they can imagine one of the writer's family or retainers walking into a room during the guided tour. I stood on a verandah and pictured the man my grandmother called Papa riding up to the house.
Very little of the furniture or furnishings are original but all are authentic replicas. The fireplaces are original, a sentimental reminder of earlier homes and, unsurprisingly, never used. The much more sensible hammock was acquired during one of their three cruises through the Pacific.
Passing one photograph the guide points out the Stevensons in Hawaii with King David Kalakaua and "Queen Victoria", but he's just wanting to see who is on the ball - the woman in black-and-white Victoria garb is Stevenson's mother, Margaret.
Upstairs is the library and the bedrooms, including one for the mother-in-law, who also had her own sitting room. There are children's drawings, a cartoon of Robert teaching history to Austin, the son of Fanny's daughter, Isobel, and another area, equipped as a hospital room.
Fanny's bedroom is lined with California redwood to remind the American of home and one of her white, flowing dresses hangs on a mannequin. Because of her clothing, the Samoans called her Aolele or Flying Cloud. However, one photo has either Fanny or Isobel surrounded by Samoans, in what appears to be a heavy velvet gown of almost traditional Korean design. She must have cooked.
In a doorway between the first two wings, a piece of the original outside wall has been preserved behind glass and viewed by a push-button light. I thought the current white a far better choice, but perhaps the blue wash was the only colour available. Considering the imported oysters, perhaps not.
Checklist - Samoa
Getting There
* Polynesian Blue flies from Auckland to Upolo's Faleolo Airport four times a week. Return fares from $562. See polynesianblue.com.
Where To Stay
* Close to the airport is the Aggie Grey's Lagoon Resort and Spa which has 140 rooms set in 20ha of landscaped grounds. Luxury family accommodation. See aggiegreys.com.
* In Apia the Insel Fehmarn Hotel has friendly staff and big, clean rooms with fully equipped kitchenettes. It is family run and has links to the early German occupation of Western Samoa. See samoa-hotels.ws.
* Coconuts Beach Club on the south coast offers a resort option with what is said to be the island's best restaurant. See coconutsbeachclub.com
Getting Around
* Many of the hotels have free airport transfers. Taxis are cheap but agree the fare first. The buses are an experience and guaranteed to give you a laugh and a muli tiga (numb bum).
Further Information
* See visitsamoa.ws
* Maureen Marriner travelled to Samoa as a guest of the Samoa Tourism Authority.
