Easter has come early!

Our first sight of Easter Island from the air
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We had twisted our travel plans to fit in a stop on Easter Island (also called Rapa Nui). It's a real "once in a lifetime" experience as this is one of the most remote, inhabited spots in the world (over 3000km from anywhere). It's world famous for it's ancient culture. The evidence of it litters Easter Island, stone heads called Moai are on every shoreline. We've got six days here which is ample time to explore this small island.

Day 1: We arrive on the hot, very humid tropical island without anywhere to stay. In the airport we chat to a guy with a sign for Kona Tau, a nearby hostel. Sorted. He's picking up a few travellers from our flight. They turn out to be a cool bunch, no-one knows each other but we all get on really well. Alex (German), Marcel (Czech) and Gina (Irish). We all arrange to meet for drinks later in the evening. Crazy Alex and Marcel are a wee bit ambitious and are hitching/trekking to the north western corner of the Island. We're more chilled and head off to Yellow Truck for lunch. We're told it's cheap, unlike most places on this remote island. The local speciality is fresh tuna in many types of sandwich. Mmmm! Whilst checkin out some massive Tuna burger and chips combo we meet Andy (U.K) & Briggita (Hungarian) a couple who have been travelling for ages together. Being friendly outgoing types we arrange to meet later at the same bar for drinks. We spend our afternoon sorting a small no VISA cashflow crisis and finding a campsite for the next day. We wanna keep using our Argentinean tent. After hours of walking in the blazing sun we decide to stay not too far from our hostel at Mihinoa Camp on a beautiful peninsula overlooking the ocean. The roar of waves crashing on the rocks should lull us to sleep! On our travesls we see some beautifully carved Moai and find a great sunset spot.

hundreds of Moai are littered across the steep slopes of the volcano

Coming in to land
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Our initial plans of exploring Easter Island on foot, by trekking and camping are dealt a blow at the tourist info, the rules have changed and camping is totally forbidden anywhere in the national park- which is most of Easter Island bar the small town of Hanga Roa where we are staying. So it looks like we'll have to hire a car/moped/horse to explore the place.

We meet our new travel buddies in the evening and there is much rejoycing! We all get on brilliantly and arrange to trek to Volcano Rano Kau and the settlement Orongo after lunch the next day. It's walking distance from the town so seem like a good plan. Andy & Briggi decide to move to our hostel as it sounds better than their place. We of course are going to leave it to live in a tent so its a moot point.

The Moai at Hanga Roa, the only town on the island
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Day 2: A later than expected start, damn that fine tasting beer, and we carry our very very heavy packs to the campsite and set up camp. We're running late so we head back to the hostel to meet the gang and do our volcano trek. But... they're gone! Gutted we walk to Yellow Truck in the hope of seeing them there but they're not to be seen, I even ask the lady working at Yellow Truck in my broken Spanish but our amigos are not to be found! We head off on our own to the volcano. It's difficult to be down as the views are incredible. We bump into our mates as they are returning from the trek and arrange to meet them at the sunset spot later. The group has grown in size as some more folk have arrived today at the hostel. Kristina (Philippines), Javier (Chilean) and Mariah (Dutch). The sunset is awesome and we make plans to hire mopeds the following day, Alex and Marcel have already costed out a place so all we have to do is be on time!

Claire patting one of the many semi-wild horses
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Day 3: The moped adventure!! 10 people, 5 mopeds and a remote island with some paved roads and a lot of dirt tracks to explore. We explore the whole island, after negotiating tough challenges like filling up at a petrol station, turning corners with a pillion passenger and of course going off road.. Amazingly we all get the hang of it and no-one gets hurt! We get to see many Moai on the shoreline, most of them toppled off their platforms (called Ahu). We visited Rano Raraku, the quarry where hundreds of Moai are littered across the steep slopes of the volcano in all the stages of production. There are just soooo many of them. It really is the most incredible sight. One we will never forget. We visited the restored Ahu Tongariki where 15 Moai have been re-erected on their original platform. They were swept away by a tidal wave in 1960 and restored in 1992. After a hard morning exploring the southern coast and the quarry we spent a few hours at Ovahe a beautiful white coral beach in a cove on the northern coast. Later that evening at the sunset point we agree to get up at 5am the next day to take our mopeds and watch the sunrise over the Moai.

All this food is to share....it's not just mine, honest!!
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Day 4: Making full use of our 24 hour moped hire we meet an hour before sunrise and drive to the northern coast, our plan was to stick to the paved roads and head to Anakena. The many wild horses on the road are a real hazard and it soon turns out that we won't get a clear view of the sunrise unless we drive further along bumpy, rocky paths to Ahu Tongariki. We race to get there before the sunrise, the sky lightens as we approach and we all think we've missed it. To all of our amazement the sunrises behind the Moai ten minutes later. Truly one of the greatest moments of our entire journey! We complete our circuit of the island and return the mopeds safely. Andy is much relieved as his card was the deposit for ALL of the mopeds! We head to the market and buy a hunk of Tuna steak hacked off a huge fish. We BBQ it for dinner at our campsite, lush. We're exhausted by the early start so we have a chilled day. We fit in the usual Yellow Truck lunch and the Sebastian Englert Archaeological Museum where we bump into Jasper and Anna (a Dutch couple we Navimaged with a month before in Chile!) we of course invite them to the sunset point. I get into teacher mode and create a Rapa Nui Quiz with Claire's help from the wealth of information at the museum. That evening we all meet at the sunset point, Claire and I have brought paper and pens as well as the usual drinks and we test everyone with our quiz. Andy and Briggi are clear winners and we present them with the prize! It's Marcels last night so we celebrate long time!

Anchor at Hanga Roa
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Day 5: Hungover, we have a very chilled day on the island, heading out for an evening meal with Andy & Briggi and then later meeting with the gang at the sunset point for one last time. This was our finest sunset, a violent red sky. We then head over to the hostel for a surreal birthday party. Kristina (a fluent spanish speaker) had befriended one of the guys working at the hostel, Claudio. So he invited us over to help him celebrate his birthday! Claudio made a cake, provided cava and we sang "Happy Birthday" as he cut his own cake. He then took us out to a local bar where we danced for hours with locals. After everyone else went home Claire, Kristina, Claudio and I went to the only disco on the island, Toroko, and experienced the full-on sweaty cheesyness of it. Not to be repeated.

If you need to know the distance to Sydney, Aukland etc!
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Day 6: Last day! Andy hires a car and we subsidise the cost of it by cramming 7 of us into this 4 seater. Oww. I'm on Claire's lap in the front seat with my head sticking out of the window like a dog for most of the day. Painful, yes but bearable. We head to the beach at Ovahe, snorkel and chill until early afternoon before exploring some more areas. We discover Puna Pau where the red stone for the topknots was quarried, Ahu Akivi with its unique seaward facing Moai and the difficult to find Ahu Vinapu with its intricately carved stone platform. By the end of this we really feel like we have "done" Easter Island. We fly out to Tahiti only hours later with Alex, Kristina, Andy & Briggi. What an amazing amazing experience!

Callum setting out to see the crater
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A brief history lesson on Easter Island: colonised by polynesian explorers the culture developed without any external influences. They carved upright human form statues (Moai) with white coral eyes, black obsidian pupils and red stone topknots (representing a hairstyle) balanced on the heads, to honour their ancestors. These were raised onto platforms (Ahu) all around the shoreline facing inland. They were incredibly industrious and created over almost a thousand Moai which litter the shores.

Wow, what a crater! This is the site the Bird Man competitions
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The Moai may have been the islanders downfall, moving the Moai from the quarry to their coastal positions required logs. This led to deforestation and pressure on food supplies. Wars broke out between tribes and led to all of the Moai being toppled and a new culture being introduced... The Birdman cult.

The Birdman cult was a religion based on a test of endurance, an early form of triathlon, with the winning tribe gaining a greater share of resources to survive. Each tribe had one representative, they had to climb down the 250m cliffs of Rano Kau, swim a couple of miles through shark infested waters to an island where the sooty tern nests. Hang around for days or weeks without food until the first egg was hatched and then swim back carrying the egg, climbing the cliff and handing the unbroken egg over to the elders gathered there. The winner was declared a god and placed in total isolation until the next race a year later. He wasn't alllowed to bathe himself, cut his hair or toenails or talk to anyone apart from the priest who carried out these functions for him. What an honour!