CHOGM meets HMNZS Manawanui: A tale of two coasts

It's a tale of two coastlines.

On the north coast of Samoa's island of Upolu, King Charles and Queen Camilla have been welcomed to Apia for the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), with leaders from 56 countries.

Their majesties stay at the luxurious Sinalei Resort and Spa at Siumu Village, and the international dignitaries and their delegations are on the P&O cruise ship Pacific Explorer, which is berthed in Apia Harbour while hotel occupancy is maxed in the island capital for the duration of CHOGM.

However, on the idyllic south-west coast, villages and tour operators are living in stark contrast, since the HMNZS Manawanui ran aground on the Tafitoala Reef in early October, caught on fire and sank.

Here their livelihoods hang in the balance, as approximately 200,000 litres of diesel have so far leaked from the vessel. The village of Tafitoala is less than two kilometres away on the coast from the sunken HMNZS Manawanui.

Netina Fuiavailili Malae and her family watched the vessel run onto the reef directly in front of their beachfront fales. It had all its lights on.

Fuiavailili Malae says her son and nephew tried to rescue crew and passengers who could be seen in the water with torches, but the wind and waves were too rough and prevented them from getting close enough.

When the family woke at dawn the next morning the ship was on fire before it sank.

"The fire went slow, and later on you saw it burst you know slow and up, and a big fire up on the boat, and then get down. And then later on can you see a big fire again, up on the boat ...it looks like there was some diesel or something like that," she said.

More than two weeks on from that dramatic night, Fuiavailili Malae's accommodation and tour operation - taking tourists to see mangroves and turtles and signature surf breaks off the reef - has lost thousands of tālā in income.

When the wind blows it smells of diesel, and dead turtles have been found on the beach.

Fuiavailili Malae says most people in her village have also lost their source of income because they cannot go fishing.

"This is the best place for snorkelling, and now everything is stopped because of the boat.

"I don't know. The government said that we are not allowed to go to the sea again and now we - you know everything is stopped now.

"There is no more tourists coming. They just come and watch where the boat is and they just go back. They don't have to stay because of this problem. Oil is everywhere," she says.

Further east along the golden sand coast, at Ocean Club Maninoa, owner Su'a Ulugia Jay Ah Fook Schuster is concerned the salvage of the Manawanui is taking too long.

"The more that leaks out, the more that's going to be affected, and you know the longer it's going to take for our oceans to recover," he says.

"It's serious because that's pretty much where our lives are. We live out there. We live off it as well. So the more that's damaged the longer it's going to take to recover and the more it's going to affect us.

"People might not see that at the moment, but it's going to be a long-term effect on us. I think in the next couple of months you're going to start seeing less fish or less marine life in that particular area."

The New Zealand Defence Force has navy divers based at Maninoa.

It is close to the Ava i Toga opening in the reef, through which they pass in IRBs to reach the wreck of the HMNZS Manawanui where they dive each day.

NZDF provides updates to Samoa's Marine Pollution Advisory Committee, which is made up of Samoa's government ministries and international environmental groups, including Pacific environmental protection agency SPREP.

Chair Fui Tupai Mau Simanu said they were now looking for a salvage company to extract the fuel from the HMNZS Manawanui. Weather permitting, this will take about 20 days from the middle of November.

"So once that's done the second phase is the bigger one, [that] is salvaging the boat - the actual wreck itself - and that's probably going to take until April or May next year, subject to the weather because cyclone season is coming up," he says.

Meanwhile the wait continues for the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa to release the results of tests on samples of water, sediment and fish taken since the HMNZS Manawanui went down.

It is unclear whether the test results will arrive in time for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, which runs until Saturday.