Easter Island

Note:  This was written on Feb 7 and will be posted when internet is available.

Hi All,

  Jer here.  Well the internet might be cooperating, so I’ll try to finish up our posting about Easter Island. This volcanic rock island is 45 sq miles in area and is 2000 miles from the nearest population center.  The island is called Rapa Nui by the Polynesians.  It was named Easter Island by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeven who discovered the island on Easter Sunday in 1722.  Today the population is about 6000 with 3000 descendants of the Rapa Nui people.  We anchored off the island about 730am.  Unfortunately, the Captain anchored right off the end of the island’s runway (???).  So, he had to raise the anchor and relocate to another anchorage.  This somewhat delayed our getting off the ship.  BTW, the runway on Easter Island was built by NASA as a shuttle alternate landing site (your tax dollars at work).  This was a really good deal for Easter Island, as they now have regularly scheduled airline service from Chile and Tahiti.  This has really helped their tourism industry.  We left the ship via tenders (the ship lifeboats) and met our guide on shore.  Over a year ago, I booked a private tour for eight with a local tour operator.  They were waiting for us, we hopped into a nice van and were on our way.  

Our first stop was the crater of the island’s largest volcano, Rano Kau.  All the views on the island are spectacular as most have magnificent views of the ocean.  The weather was perfect.

  

Next we went to see what we were really here for, the legendary moai.  This first picture is of the largest platform of moai on the island, Ahu Tongariki.  This group of 15 was restored in the 90’s (when restoration began, almost all the island’s moai had fallen over).  Note that the moai second from the right has a “top knot.”  Originally all the moai had these top knots, but they have not been replaced during restoration.

Here are a couple dorky tourists someone photographed :).  Taking a picture with a moai is slimming!

We next went to the quarry where most of the moai were carved, Rano Raraku.  Today there are almost 1000 moai spread around the island.  The quarry contains over 300 completed and semi-completed moai that were never moved.  Many of the moai look like they are just heads.  In fact, they are all full sized, but hundreds of years of landslides and erosion have buried them.  In the background of this picture, it is easy to see where the blocks of stone were carved off the cliff to use for the moai.  How all this was done many hundreds of years ago with only human power is still being debated.

This moai in the quarry is the only one that has been found in a kneeing and praying position.

One last picture.  

So, that is a look at our day on Easter Island.  Helen and I have been around a bit, but this was a very special day.   We are grateful for being able to visit Easter Island, we won’t forget this day.

So now we are at sea heading for Papeete and Bora Bora in the Society Islands.  But tomorrow we are making a stop at another very interesting place, Pitcairn Island.  This dot of an island (1x2 miles) is famous as the landing spot for the mutineers of the HMS Bounty (1789).  Here Fletcher Christian landed with 6 other mutineers, 6 Tahitian men, 11 Tahitian women, and one Tahitian baby.  After they landed, they burned the Bounty (They didn’t want it visible to anyone looking for them).  Today the island is inhabited only by descendants of those who landed on the Bounty.  42 people currently live on the island including only one child, a young girl.  These might be the most remote people in the world.  They have some satellite internet (they pay $100 for 2GB, and we think Verizon is bad!)  Recently they lost their television service.  They have no airport and are resupplied by a ship that comes every three months from New Zealand. We won’t be able to go onto the island as there is no place for the ship to dock and also no place for tenders to land.  Some of the island people will come out to the ship in long boats.  They will give a presentation on island life and also sell some crafts that they make.  Should be a interesting stop.  Google Pitcairn Island to read more about this interesting place.

OK friends, that’s all for now.  Will post every couple of days as we make our way to Tahiti.  The internet is very spotty out here in the South Pacific.

Jer and Helen