Introduction → Meet the Teams → Race Tracker → Leg 1 → Leg 2 → Leg 3 → Leg 4 → Leg 5 → Leg 6 → Leg 7 → Leg 8 → Leg 9 → Leg 10 → Leg 11 → Leg 12 → Leg 13 → Leg 14 → Leg 15
Leg 23.10 – “I don’t want fire on my face.”
Teams begin the 10th Leg of the Race by hopping back on the Philippine Airlines Airbus A350 which will fly them to Apia, Samoa!
The Leg begins in front of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral at 7am where they will choose a classic Kia vehicle and drive themselves to Apia Park.
Apia Park is the home stadium of the Samoa national rugby union team.
Here, teams will learn and then perform the Siva Tau Samoan war dance on their own!
When they get the thumbs up, teams must drive to the Papase’ea Sliding Rocks where they must slide down the rocks to retrieve the next clue.
That clue directs teams to the Samoa Cultural Village where they will find the Detour: Tapa or Pate.
In Tapa, teams must learn how to and then successfully make tapa cloth in the traditional way.
In Pate, teams must learn how to and then properly perform the pate, a traditional drum instrument.
After the Detour, teams head to the To Sua Ocean Trench. Here, both team members must jump into the water to retrieve two sacks with matching colors and then one of the floating clues.
That clue tells teams to keep the sacks until further notice and first find This Local Beach where they will encounter a Roundabout! Teams will have two tasks they must complete at this beach in any order they choose before moving on to the next Route Marker.
For one task, teams must repair a traditional Samoan fale or thatched roof on one of these beachside huts.
For the other task, teams must open the sacks from earlier and complete a puzzle replica of a traditional Pe’a tattoo.
This is also the Trigger Point for this Leg. If at least four teams choose to complete the fale task first, the U-Turn or Yield will be activated on the next Leg. And the fourth team to choose either task to complete first WILL be immune from either the U-Turn or Yield.
When both tasks are completed, teams can proceed to Matagialalua Friendship Park where they will find the Road Block: Who’s fired up?
Every September, Samoa celebrates the Teuila Festival. And part of the festivities is the Siva Afi or Fire Knife dance competition. Teams from all over the world come to Samoa to perform during festival week. For this Road Block, teams will learn how to perform the dance. While teams will not be handling real fire themselves, they will have to perform alongside actual fire. And when they get the thumbs up, they’ll get the next clue.
And that clue points them to the Pit Stop at Robert Louis Stevenson Museum.
The first team to check-in here will win P200,000 courtesy of Shell V-Power Nitro+.
The last team to check-in here WILL be eliminated.
^Click here to follow the teams through the Leg!
“Director’s” Commentary
#NewCountryAlert! Yay!
Wonderful to have TARPHDME visiting Samoa. This is a very Google-scouting-heavy Leg. So I think an actual Samoan Leg should be even better. And potentially have either two Legs or pairing Samoa with American Samoa even. Or another country in the Pacific as well.
So we start off in front of the Cathedral, a nice location in the morning. Not sure about brand new Kia Sportages in Samoa, so we can round up some classic Kia cars instead hehe.
A lot of simple Active Route Info tasks this Leg. The Samoan war dance is one of them at Apia Park. Followed by the sliding rocks. Just things to get teams driving around and featuring some culture and Samoa’s beautiful landscape.
The Detour is definitely a cultural pair of tasks. Both should be equally matched. Both a bit tedious and just needing to get the hang of each task to complete them.
The To Sua Ocean Trench looks beautiful and perfect for those 8K UHD drone shots! Plus, you know TARPHDME loves the “Keep until further notice” tasks! Hehe
So originally, I had the next two tasks at different locations as simple Active Route Info tasks. But I decided why not put them in a Roundabout. Originally, TARPHDME has used the Roundabout as a way for teams to go for potential gifts/powers like an Express Pass or Fast Forward, etc. Taking the idea of a Roundabout, teams had the option of where to exit the Roundabout. For example, they could choose to get off at the first Roundabout or just drive through to the third one, which would be the regular Route Marker and skipping the Fast Forward or Express Pass task.
Here, I decided why not do it with regular tasks and tweak the idea a little bit. Instead of having the option of skipping things, teams will have to choose in what order they will complete tasks. I think that could potentially trip up teams. Choosing one task over the other first might affect how they perform. So it should be interesting to see play out.
Both the fale task and the simple puzzle are good tasks for a Roundabout. Again, just needing to get through them. But could depend on which one teams complete first. One task might exhaust them and then affect how they do the second one. Or vice versa. As much of a mental challenge as a physical I think.
Finally, the Road Block should be the highlight of the Leg. Of course it’d be great to have the teams actually handling actual fire. But we don’t want anyone to get hurt though hehe. I think this could be a really challenging task. At least, we have to make sure it is. Having teams frustrated at the end of the Leg will make for great TV.
Overall, I think this is a solid Leg in Samoa. We want to be able to showcase the wonderful culture and beautiful country. And I think we were able to do that here even with this Google-scouted Leg. What more with an actual scouting visit!