DAYS SIX TO SEVEN: APIA, SAMOA

YOU are now on your way to Australia (and should be developing good packing and unpacking skills), stopping for a night (after a, deep breath, nearly ten-hour flight) on this South Pacific island, crossing the international date line and so losing a day in the process.

You check in at the Sheraton Samoa Beach Resort and then visit the former estate of Treasure Island author Robert Louis Stevenson in Vailima. In the evening you head to a ‘fia-fia’ feast rooted in Polynesian culture, and are presented with a handmade silk sarong.