Samoa is one of those places whose very name evokes an exotic, end-of-the-earth Eden. Not to be confused with American Samoa, which sits slightly east, the politically independent country of Samoa was a colony of New Zealand until 1962 and still draws its few intrepid visitors from that country and Australia (the South Pacific being to them what the Caribbean is to New Yorkers). Aside from having a largely untouched, distinctive Pacific Islander culture, it’s also known among surfers as having s...