Vacation - Tahiti and Easter Island - Day 12-15

Our flight to Tahiti came in late at night and we went back the Manava, the same hotel we used when we arrived from Los Angeles. Unfortunately, they did not upgrade us to a beach front room this time. Still, the room was nice and we literraly only slept there. We were on the the road by 8-9 o'clock, headed for the ferry terminal, to get to the island of Moorea.

A 20-30 minute ride takes you to the island of Moorea. We picked up a short term rental car (nice Ford Focus) and started on a quick tour around the island.

Me on the ferry to Moorea.


This is the Tahiti of your dreams. Clear blue water and luxury accomodations.
This is the Sofitel Moorea Beach Resort. It is very near the ferry terminal and looks back on the island of Tahiti.


On our tour, we drove up one of the mountains to a lookout. This was the view. Along the way we saw pine trees planted at a agricultural station. To us, it looked just like California in places.


After our 2-3 hour island tour (it's not that big), we returned our car and they drove us back to the resort, the Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort and Spa.



After checking in, we were taken to our room, one of the over water bungalows. We decided that if we were going all the way to "Tahiti", we might as well do it right. We were glad we did. The rooms are beautiful and relatively private and quiet.


This was our deck/balcony.


This was the view from our deck.


The first thing I did was jump in the water, directly from our deck.


We went for a snorkel shortly afterwards. The snorkeling was fantastic. We have done some in the Caribbean, but this was at least as good if not better than any of the places there. Plus all you had to do was walk down the stairs and jump in.


This picture was actually taken on our last day there. The lighting conditions seemed to make the water sparkle even more that day and we got several great pictures of the resort and the water.


A good shot of the balconies with stairs down to the water.


Our days ended with colourful sunsets.


Our days started with a beautiful sunrises.


Me looking at the fish on the way to breakfast.


This is the dining room, where breakfast was served.


Another view of the dining room.


We got up each morning to watch the sun rise. This was one of them.


Among the fish, we saw several rays swimming under the boardwalks. We also saw some small sharks in there, more at night around the lighted water around the crepe bar.


This a view of our room from the balcony.


It is not always sunshine and good times in paradise. This downpour lasted 20-30 minutes and then it was back to sunshine on the deck.


Our room had a see-through floor to allow you to watch the water from your couch. This is me under the room.


Another sunrise.


The water under the boardwalks teemed with fish of all kinds. You just had to lean over an look down. No need to get wet. On one of the mornings coming back from breakfast, we saw this school of fish. There where hundreds of them and they swam around in unison.


This is the crepe bar, open only at night while we where there. Underneath this area of the boardwalk they are running some experiments on trying to encourage coral growth, so some of the water has been fenced off to keep the snorkelers out. This is where we usually saw the sharks, attracted by the fish, which were probably attracted by the lights at night.



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So that is pretty much the end of our trip. We flew back to Los Angeles overnight, spent a couple of hours at LAX and then arrived home in the evening.

One aside though, if you are ever at LAX for a couple of hours and want something to do, try a meal at the restaurant there. The view is nice, food is great and resaonably priced. You also get to sit in the iconic structure that represents LAX. The interior is decorated in a futuristic Jetsons manner. While you are there, don't forget to check out the washrooms.

Restaurant at LAX.


Interior of restaurant.

Vacation - Tahiti and Easter Island - Day 11

So today is Wednesday, June 24, our last day on Easter Island. We had rented a car again with the plan to drive around and see a few things we had not yet got to and revisit some of our favourite places.

This was the sunrise as seen from the patio outside our room.


With Michigan along for the car ride, our first stop was Puna Pau, otherwise known as the top knot quarry. This is the spot where the round "hats" that some (all?) of the moai had on their heads. It was carved at a totally different spot than the moai themselves and transported to the ahu at some point. Again, exactly how this was done is not known, although relatively speaking, these would have been pretty easy. Now getting them on top of the moai is another story. Some propose that the topknot was raised along with the moai, others after the raising of the moai with an inclined pile of rocks as was shown to Thor Heyerdahl.

The red stone of a topknot.


We made our next stop on the north shore, at Anakena beach. I brought my swimsuit along because I wanted to say I had swam; 1. In the Pacific, and 2. At this beautiful beach on Easter Island. It was very cold, like cold bath cold. I didn't stay in long.

Yes, this is me in the water.


Others only got there feet wet.


Probably our clearest shot of the moai at Anakena.


This shows a good shot of the large expanse of sand at Anakena. No wonder this was the first landing spot on the island, who wouldn't want to explore this beautiful spot.


We happened to arrive just as a very large tour from Australia was arriving as well. We saw them arrive on their own 747 the day before. The tour operator had arranged for native dancers to put on a show on the beach, and we were able to watch as well.

Dancers similar to what we had watched a few nights previously.


We continued our clockwise route around the island and made another stop at Tongariki. This is Michigan and I in front of the ahu.


The southeast wall of the quarry volcano, Rano Raraku.


We happened to notice this lone moai a few hundred meters inland from the ahu. This was likely swept here by the tsunami that had previously destroyed this site. We were amazed that we had not noticed this on our three previous trips to Tongariki.


The coast along the road to our accomodations.


The rest of the day was spent buying some souvenirs and sending post cards. We also got our passports stamped with four different stamps special to Easter Island. There was a charge for this at the Post Office, but it's cool to see them in your passport.

Unfortunately, we seem to have no pictures of "downtown" Hanga Roa, but it is essentially one main street, a km or so long, with several side streets off of it. It was paved a decade of so ago and the sidewalks are done in locally produced paving stones.

Our flight left late that evening, so our host took us to the airport for check-in and then we left and went to dinner with her. An hour or so later, she dropped us off at the airport, and our plane boarded within the hour. That was a nice end to our trip.

We thoroughly enjoyed Easter Island, but in different ways I think. My wife found the moai and the spiritual sense around them the most intriguing, while I fell in love with the geography and sense of grandeur at the sites, especially Tongariki. Her highpoint was the quarry, while mine was the north coast trail.

If you are at all interested in going, I would recommend it. If you are outdoor people like us and want to do some hiking, then several days would not be too much. The people that left shortly after we arrived had been there for something like 17 days. Revisiting sites is not uncommon, to see them in different light, different attitude, alone or with a group, you always seem to discover something new.