Blow Holes – don’t necessarily blow when you want them to!
The Taga Blow Holes are located on the island of Savai’i in Samoa. No, not Hawaii near Honolulu! Actually, you can buy T-Shirts from the local markets that proudly say ‘Savai’i, not Hawaii’!
If you’re ever in this remote part of the South Pacific, they are worth checking out to see how high they shoot up and how loud they can be. I managed to quickly take this shot of the water spurting up through these many lava holes.
The best time to visit them is when the tide is coming in, as this is where the Blow Holes are at their biggest. They are quite powerful beasts when they want to be – sometimes spurting up water tens of metres into the air.
In fact, the force of the water can be so strong, you can use the Taga Blow Holes as a ‘Coconut Cannon’ during this time – that is, stand near them, and when a wave comes in, throw a coconut into the hole and watch it being projectiled into the Pacific Ocean. And try to do this without being washed away in the process! Actually, it’s no big deal, you can go reasonably close to the blow holes without being washed away and ending up like Tom Hanks did on Castaway.
However, they don’t often blow on cue when you really need them to, as I found out.
Blow Hole Video
Here is a quick video that I took of the Blow Holes. Including using them as a Coconut Cannon. It’s quite impressive to see how far the Blow Holes can send them! And there are a number of takes here from yours truly which just demonstrates to me that travel television show presenters must do thousands of takes for their programs. Or maybe that I’m just crap at presenting!
More Blow Hole Stuff
For more cool things to see like the Taga Blow Holes, see more at the Samoa Tourism Authority Website.