Definitions

Upolu

Upolu

[oo-poh-loo]
Upolu, volcanic island (1986 est. pop. 163,000), Samoa, S Pacific, the most populous of the Samoan islands. Upolu's land area is c.430 sq mi (1,110 sq km); the highest peak is Vaaifetu (c.3,600 ft/1,100 m). The island is well watered, and its fertile soil yields cacao, rubber, bananas, and coconuts. Apia, the capital of Samoa, is the chief port and major city of the island. At Saluafata, the second port, there is a U.S. naval station. Robert Louis Stevenson spent his last years on Upolu, residing at his home, Vailima.
In Hawaii, Upolu Point is the northern cape of the Big Island of Hawai‘i.

Upolu is an island in Samoa, formed by a massive basaltic shield volcano which rises from the seafloor of the western Pacific Ocean. The island is long, in area, and is the second largest and most populated of the Samoan islands, lying to the east of the "big island", Savai'i. The capital Apia is in the middle of the north coast with Faleolo International Airport at the western end of the island. The island has not had any historically recorded eruptions.

In Polynesian mythology (specifically Samoan), Upolu is the first woman on the island of the same name. In the late 18th and early 19th century, the island was sometimes called Ojalava or Ojolava.

In the late 19th century Robert Louis Stevenson had a four-hundred acre (1.6 km²) plantation at Vailimi and died there in 1894. It is speculated by Swiss author Alex Capus, that Stevenson found the Treasure of Lima around 1890 on the near island of Tafahi which made him and his family very rich.

An extremely small species of spider lives on Upolu. According to the Guinness Book of World Records 2005, the spider is the size of a period on a page from that book.

References

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