Vacation - Tahiti and Easter Island - Day 9

So today is Monday. As I said in my last post, we rented a car for today, actually a Suzuki Sidekick built in CAMI only I believe. It was more than several years old and will be literally driven in to the ground, as there is no place to sell them off to on Easter Island. It was reliable transportation for what we wanted to do, which was drive back to some places we saw on the tour, some places we didn't get to and some places we had gone to on our own.

Spots visited today.


We picked up a traveling companion today, another woman staying by herself at Te'ora, our accommodations. The first thing we did was get up around 5:30-6:00 AM and drive to the other end of the island, about 40 minutes. We were back at Tongariki to watch the sun come up behind the moai. As such, when we arrived, it was still dark, which is where the picture at the top of this entry and the one below come from.

This is the lone moai that traveled Japan, and stands by itself near the entrance to the site. It was very intriguing looking at it in the dark. We tried a few scenarios to take photos, but with our limited digital cameras, we were only partially successful.


Shooting this site in the dark was challenging. One, the site is huge, several football fields in size. Second, the hills behind the moai hid the rising sun until it was well above the horizon. You would need to be here in the their summer period (our winter) to get the sun rising directly behind the moai, and out of the ocean. Third, at least initially, there was a lot of cloud cover.

I tried various settings and zoom settings. I was not completely satisfied, but for me at least it captures the moment in my mind.




I included this one, untouched, just for those conspiracy, outer space, folks out there. The glowing green orbs just appeared out of nowhere while I was taking this picture.


This was an attempt to capture the granduer of the side of Rano Raraku, the quarry. Again, this did not fully capture the image, but it was the best I could achieve. We will visit this cliff edge later this afternoon and give you a reverse view back down. There are some topknots to the side for a sense of scale.


As the sun continued to rise, I moved around the site trying to capture what I felt were good images. Remember the size of this place. Moving around sometimes took a minute or two, in which time the scene and lighting changed again. We captured this image as the sun came out from behind the hills and the clouds. It almost appears as though the moai are wearing the topknots, just as they should be. (I had a thought on why these topknots are on the the ground. Quite possibly the restoration team ran out of time and or money, so they left them lined up like this.)


This is my favourite shot of Tongariki, showing all the moai in line on the ahu.


Just to disprove the myth that Easter Island is a barren rock, this picture shows some of the trees on the island. There are actually some planted areas in the middle of the island that resemble forests. But yes, much of the rest is just rock and grass in fields. You will see plenty of that tomorrow.


This is one of those pictures that just pop up as memorable. The colours are so vivid. This is the small harbour near our room, where the sea turtles are. Or travelling companion was arranging a dive for later that morning while we were here. After this, we walked in to town for our only breakfast not in our room. We found a pleasant cafe with a patio in the sun. A little expensive, but not as bad as Tahiti.


While our companion went on her dive, we traveled to a site we had not seen yet, Vinapu. Although I believe this site has some archeological significance, which I can't remember, it is not that impressive. It is relatively close to town, and it may have the only female moai on the island, and the stone work is very intricate and distinctive. There are also a couple of moai heads buried face up in the grass that you can get right up to. Okay, maybe this was a pretty good site after all. It would probably be even better with a guide.

Speaking of guides, the one we were with Saturday was an import from Australia. He came with a film crew to the island in the early 90s. More about that later. He admitted that his view would be slanted in one direction and that a native guide might have a very different slant on some things. Neither of them may be wrong, just different.

As we drove the side roads trying to find Vinapu, we came across this scene along the coast. If you look carefully, you can just make out a road (?, trail?) going down the cliff side in the first image. This was near the fuel storage depot and may have been an early place where larger equipment and supplies were brought in.


This second picture just had beautiful colours and imagery.




This is the only female(?) moai on the island. That's what the guide book said, but we just didn't see it.


A head (and more?) buried in the ground.


It was intricate stone interfaces like this that led Thor Heyerdahl to believe that the original inhabitants came from South America, where this is common.


Tumbled moai at Vinapu.


This is one of the heads found in the grass. Standing at different positions around the head made different aspects of it stand out and seemed to change the look of it totally. In some views it was very sinister looking, and in others quite solemn.




After picking up our travelling companion, we headed back to the top of Rano Kau, for a quick lunch. The sun was out and the skies were clear, much better than the day before.


Our next stop was back out to the east end of the island, to see the quarry again. Our goal was to visit the inside, which we did not do on the guided tour, in afternoon light. Below are some shots of the inside.

Look closely at the small features in the grass. Those are the tops of buried moai.








This image shows a moai with quite distinctive ears. These are very long, a representation of the "long ears" that were supposedly the ruling class of the island.


My wife beside a moai buried in the ground. Remember, the head is usually about 1/3 of the total height of the moai.


This is an incomplete moai, still on its back. This is on the edge/top of the crater. To each side of this point the crater wall continues up for another 100 m or so, but this is the highest point that people are officially allowed to venture now. As time goes by, more and more restrictions are placed on movement around the island artifacts. Good for the artifacts, bad for the enjoyment of the visitors. This is the point where you can see Tongariki, as shown in the next two pictures.


Tongariki from atop Rano Raraku.


Closeup of Tongariki from atop Rano Raraku.



30-40 minutes later we are back out on the outside of the quarry. This image was a not uncommon scene around the island and several were visible from this point on the quarry hill. This shows a face down moai, broken, lying in the middle of the field below the quarry. It can be seen in the middle of the picture. For whatever reason, this completed moai was abandoned just after the start of its journey. Did it just fall over?


With this image, I was trying to capture the impact of the carving on the mountain itself. The flat faces on the mountain are the result of several moai being carved from the same place. For some sense of scale, look at the tops of the maoi at the bottom, and remember, the flat surfaces are further up the side of the mountain.


A couple of classic shots, with some better lighting.




This moai is near the path in to the quarry. There are actually two relatively large moai here, a second 90 degrees to the the one shown.


A picture of the quarry as we drove away from it.


Another sunset at Tahai. Nothing else to say.








I noticed these paddlers just after sunset, as I had the first night here. I was able to get this picture this second time.


We decided on trying the fish place tonight for dinner. I ended up with one of my most satisfying meals of the trip, a great plate of fried chicken. That gives you an indication of my culinary leanings. My wife enjoyed a great fish dish.

Afterward, we met up with some more guests from our lodging and we decided to go watch the movie in town. Actually, it plays 3-4 times per week, every week, because the move is "Rapa Nui". This was a Kevin Costner production, made in the early 1990s. This was the reason that our guide had originally come to the island. He ended up meeting a native woman and they now run one of the better hotels and guide services. Having seen most of the island and learned more about the history, it was interesting to watch this movie and see the spin they put on it. It wasn't too bad from that point of view. They tried to include a lot of things in a small time period (literally and in terms of the movie). Don't rush out and rent it though and I would definitely suggest that you do not watch it before going to Easter Island, if you are considering it.


Thanks to Sharon, our inn keeper, we were able to keep the car until the next morning,so we had a quick drive home around 10:30-11:00 PM. That makes for pretty much an 18 hour day, as we were up with the sun. But that's okay, tomorrow we're just going to do a "little" hike.

Vacation - Tahiti and Easter Island - Day 8

So, today is day 8 of our trip and our third full day on Easter Island. It is also Sunday, and on Sunday you go to church, whether you normally do or not. At least on Easter Island. The church is packed and the locals bring their accordion, guitars, drums and other instruments to play at mass. The 9AM service is a Rap Nui version of mass, with a lot of singing and music. It is a very enjoyable event to attend. The later mass is a more traditional, as I understand it.

When you talk about the church on Easter Island, you have to think of Father Sebastian. He was a key figure in the Thor Heyerdahl book my wife read.

Outside the church after mass.


After mass, we proceeded home and packed up for a hike. Now remember, this was the first day of winter, so we had to bring our toques and gloves along. Just kidding, but it was the first day of winter. The map below shows our route along the coast and then up the side of the volcano, Rano Kao.



This was the taken along the coastal road at the beginning of our hike.

As I think I have pointed out previously, you can't go anywhere on Easter Island without running in to a dog or two or three. In this case, Michigan, the house dog, came along with us, for all 14 km. A few km in, we picked up two more dogs who accompanied us all the way to the crater rim.

Michigan is right beside my wife, another dog is farther back on the left and the third can just be seen under her right elbow. Our two guests hooked up with another couple headed down the volcano, which left us only with Michigan for the rest of the trip after lunch.


This little guy was very friendly, but as usual, didn't really beg when we stopped for lunch. He would have happily cleaned up any spills though.


Me at the edge of the Rano Kao crater. Don't worry, the volcano is dormant. This was our lunch stop.


This is the view from our lunch stop.

This is the view from our lunch stop a few seconds later. The clouds rolled in and the visibility was very limited for a few minutes. The rain came a little later.


After attaining the top of the volcano, we continued on to the ancient village of Orongo. This is believed to be a ceremonial place related to the Birdman culture that grew in to prominence after the downfall of the earlier cultures that created the moai. It dwindled down in the mid 1800's, likely due to reduced population and missionary work on the island.

This picture shows the islands that one man from each clan would swim to. The goal was to be the first to return to Orongo, on the top of the cliff, with a bird's egg from the island. The chief of the winners clan would in a sense rule for the following year. It was a great honour to claim. They had to climb down to and back up from the ocean below. Yes, it is quite high up.


This is a picture of the crater rim that was seen from our lunch spot. Weather has eroded this wall immediately beside the ocean. Eventually, thousands of years from now, the wall will crumble and allow the water in the crater in to flow to the ocean. Now that I am talking about the crater, look carefully at the previous pictures and the following one and you can see vegetation in the floor of the crater. The floor is a few hundred feet down. The crater is filled with fresh water and also allows the growth of many special plants within the crater. Thor Heyerdahl stated that they found ruins in the crater, but I heard and saw nothing about those. I believe in dry times, this may have also been a source of water for the residents.


This is my wife and Michigan on the return trip.


This picture tries to capture the numerous hawks that are on the island. This was takend from the crater rim at Orongo, looking down in to the crater.


This is a view of the village from the slopes of Rano Kao.

After 14 km and 5 hours, that is the end of our Sunday on Easter Island. We decided to rent a car that evening, to drive around the next day.