Random Extracts from the Ommtree Diary

My girlfriend and I were planning a round the world trip with only one set destination on the itinerary which was visiting her family in Eastern Europe.  We made a list of places we wanted to visit and started narrowing them down. Machu Picchu was on the list as our first choice, when I said Easter Island is on the way, let’s go there. My girlfriend said “where on earth is that”, so I had to Google it and show her the pictures and where it was. I had seen over the years, pictures of the mysterious stone statues with red top hats and of course watched the 1994 Kevin Costner produced movie Rapa Nui. Oh, and don’t forget the statue in Ben Stiller’s, Night at the museum movie. And if that isn’t enough to light the fire to one day visit there, what is? 

Most travel agents wanted us to travel to the States, then down to Chili and across to Easter Island or direct to Santiago, Chili, stay for a stop-over, then back 5 odd hours the same way we just came. I didn’t like spending time in a plane if I could help it or wasted a night in a stop-over, so we found our own route through Tahiti with a leisurely stop-over there instead. We pre-booked island accommodation from a private website we found online and after organising the rest of our trip destinations, we were on our way.

From Tahiti it was close to a 6 hours flight to the island. Apart from knowing about the statues and where the island was on the map, I knew nothing else about the place or its history. From the moment the plane approached Rapa Nui, I was impressed, it had a sense of total rugged remoteness about it, an island sitting in the middle of nowhere and we were about to touch down.

The friendly owner of the little cabin we had booked picked us up from the airport and drove us back to the accommodation. Words couldn’t describe it, a small private cabin over-looking the South-eastern Pacific Ocean and what was even more amazing was, right in front of us were the Moai or “moy moy” as we nicknamed them. Five stone statues on the shoreline right in front of our cabin guarding the island from evil ocean spirits. What a great start to an adventure filled 3 days.

Day one started with breakfast delivered to our door by the owner, a fresh tropical fruit breakfast over-looking this majestic scenery. This photo was taken at sunset, but this is what we woke up and went to bed with each day.

 

For dinner, we walked to Hanga Roa, the only town on the island for dinner. Actually, we were already in town as most people on the island lived in it. My girlfreind ordered a soup which turned out to be the most expensive soup on the planet. I think it was because the ingredients had to be shipped in from the mainland whereas my meal was from locally grown foods and priced ok.

To pre-organize our day two transportation, we asked her what was the best way to get around the island under our own steam? With us thinking we would have to hire a car from a rental company or ride push bikes, the owner without hesitation offered us her car to drive for the day for 20 dollars. A bargain at half the price and petrol included! We had already booked our day one, half day tour to get our bearings and to learn about the history of this mysterious place.  

  

 

We spent an informative half day in a mini bus with a local guy visiting the main tourist spots and learning about how the Moai were built and how archaeologists believe they were transported to the many spots around the island. No-one really knows for a fact why the statues were built or even transported for that matter as no one has been able to decipher the Petroglyphs carved on the back of the statues.

 

Rapa Nui is believed to be have been settled by Polynesian people sometime between 700 to 1100 CE, who created a thriving and industrious culture as supported by the 887 stone statues scattered around the island. It is said that overpopulation and the extinction of natural resources led to the decline of an estimated population of 15,000 in the 1600’s to 2,000 – 3,000 in 1722. In 1877 only 111 inhabitants remained due to slave raiding by the Peruvian’s and

 

 

European disease in the 1860’s. Deforestation is also said to have severely affected the native population from being able to build new boats which in turn affected their ability to go out fishing. Today, Easter Island has a population of 5,800 people of which 60% are of Rapa Nui aboriginal descent.

The statues more than anything else are the main reason for tourists visiting the island. In 1774, British explorer James Cook noted that some of the statues were lying face down, having been pulled over in war. Our guide also told us that the Moai in the photo were at one stage in the past, hit by a Tsunami and washed more than a kilometre inland. Today through the efforts of various countries, many statues have been up righted to their former glory.

After returning to the main street of town, we proceeded cautiously to get lunch as we were watching our budget and didn’t want to spend all of our 5 week round the world budget on food in the first week. This didn’t eventuate so it must have just been the soup. The afternoon was spent wandering around town, down to the beach and buying some memorabilia to take home (Small stone statues carved from the same volcanic rock as the big guys).

 Day two after our delicious fruit breakfast, we went to get the keys for the car where the owner said that the car doesn’t have insurance on the island as it wasn’t really needed. She did warn us however to be careful when driving, as there were a couple of hazards to watch out for such as pot holes on the dirt roads and horses. We gratefully accepted an unexpected picnic lunch the owner prepared for us and we were on our way.

I was constantly amazed over the course of the day, at how many statues there actually were, ranging in size from 2 to 10 meters in height and weighing as much as 80 tons. There was even a 21 meter giant still half carved on a hillside. For some reason only a quarter of the

Moai ever made it to their finally resting home, with the rest still at the quarry or part way there. Each statue was meant to represent the deceased head of a family and it would take 5 to 6 men approximately one year to sculpt one statue by hand using nothing but stone chisels. Some experts say they were rolled on tree trunks into place and other say they were walked upright to their final resting home. Whatever the truth, it boggles the mind thinking about how they actually moved them at all. A lot of statues looked small, but in reality were more than half buried by shifting dirt over many years such as this one.  

 

Kissing the Moai – Easter Island / Rapa Nui

 

 

  Where ever you looked there were statues, even in rock walls that had been built many years later.

 

One particular part of the Island had red rock and was used for the mining and carving the top hats seen on many of the Moai and as you can see, these hats were massive and weighed up to 12 tons.

 

On our way back to the cabin, we took a detour around the end of the airport runway and drove up a hill to find a massive volcano crater filled with water and floating green vegetation islands. I was honestly surprised at the beauty of this and we just sat there overlooking the volcano cater and ocean. Amazing!

 

 

Rock wall with a face, Easter Island / Rapa Nui

 

After a short walk around the top of the crater we came across a cluster of stone houses over-looking the ocean which were used for living and smaller ones to house chickens. That’s what the sign said anyway. One would have to crawl through a small doorway to gain access. Whatever these houses were used for, they certainly had a great view. The view from here was amazing and bought back memories of the movie where you could imagine young men competing in a ritual called the Tangata manu or “Bird Man”. Contestants would have to swim out to a small island

(Motu Nui) and collect the first Sooty Tern egg of the season and return with it intact. If that wasn’t hard enough, they would then have to climb a steep cliff again with the egg intact and present it to his patron upon being entitled to gifts of food and tributes. Not a challenge for the faint hearted! Back to town and dinner for a last night as our plan left in the afternoon the next day.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Headgear of the Moai, Easter Island / Rapa Nui

 

 

Day three was spent walking around town, the markets and visiting our guarding Moai for the last time. After saying goodbye to our cabin, owner drove us to the airport where we said our goodbyes.

Would I go back to Easter Island? In a heartbeat as whenever someone asks me today, what my favourite travel destination in the world would be, Easter Island is certainly one of my favourites.

Often mentioned as the most remote inhabited island destinations on the planet, Easter Island or as the locals call it, Rapu Nui is indeed mysterious. Was it Atlantis, aliens, God worshipping locals or ego-centric tribal chiefs that built the amazing stone statues?

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                            Silhouette of the Moai, Easter Island / Rapa Nui