Bonnie and Ed's second Around-the-World Adventure

Rapa Nui, Isla de Pascua, Easter Island: no matter what you call it...it's AWESOME!

We have been making our way across the Pacific Ocean toward a flyspeck of land in the South Pacific – Easter Island. It is one of the remotest places in the world. I thought that last year when we were to land on Ascension Island in the South Atlantic that we were in one of the remotest places in the world, but I think the Easter Island has it beat. See what I mean:

 This is where Easter Island is with respect to most of the other island groups in the South Pacific. It is called Easter Island because it was discovered on an Easter Sunday. The Spanish for Easter is Pascua; however, the Polynesians – who have laid claim to it for hundreds, if not thousands, of years – call it Rapa Nui (wrap-ah new-ee), meaning….something important in some Polynesian dialect, I imagine…

We are just a bit concerned that the weather will permit us to do a landing on Easter Island since it will be a tender operation and if there are too many swells, the Captain may not let us ashore. Safety first, last and always. Today’s weather report is a good sign and tomorrow bright and early will tell the tale once we get within anchorage of the island. The real danger is that we can get on the island, but if the seas begin to roll up, we may not get off… Easter Island has no sheltered harbor as do many of the Caribbean islands. The situation will be the same later in the week when we get to Pitcairn Island.

Here is an idea of what we expect to see on Easter Island:

We will anchor off the only town on the island: Hanga Roa.

Rapa Nui is thought to have been discovered by and inhabited by people from Chile or some adjacent part of South America. In 1947 a Scandinavian explorer, Thor Heyerdahl, made his way on a balsa raft, the Kon-Tiki, to Rapa Nui in an attempt to prove that this version of discovery was feasible. He made it to the island (and got a best-selling book out of it) and made his claim; however, in the ensuing years, archaeologists and other scientists have pretty much determined that the native Rapa Nui ancestors were Polynesian and that they were the original discoverers.

The Rapa Nui call their piece of paradise “Te Pito oTe Henua”, or “The Navel of the World”. They believe that all life originated here – and they may be right. The sun, the sand, the waters, the everything about this place just seems like it could be the original Eden.

The Moai (mo-eye) are the major point of interest on Rapa Nui for most visitors. We hope that we can get some up close and personal shots of these huge stone figures.

I picked up this blog post the next morning as we approach Rapa Nui -

Bummer! The Captain just announced that the seas are too rough to make a safe landing. That means that we will circumnavigate the island and our Destination Lecturer, Jon Fleming, will make comments from the bridge on the ship’s PA system.

Although we are very disappointed that we could not get ashore – after all, Rapa Nui was one of the highlights of this itinerary – we understand the need to maintain a safe passage. We spoke with one lady who has tried four times in four cruises to get ashore and has not yet made it. One other passenger mentioned that the only sure way to get ashore is to take an “expedition” trip and go ashore in the zodiacs that are used for the close-up exploration.

This should give you some idea of the potential landing conditions.

These were the “officials” that were to come aboard to check us in (Rapa Nui is owned by Chile), but as soon as they realized we were not going to do any landings, they turned around and went back ashore. Their small longboat is much better suited to getting in and out of the unprotected landing site.

We did manage to get a few pictures of the island and the Moai from our veranda since the trip around the island was clockwise and we are on the starboard side. The following pictures will have just slightly more meaning if you reference this map:

The red ovals are the three sites we could see clearly from the ship. Most of the other sites are either obscured by the landscape or have Moai that have been toppled and it is difficult to determine which are merely rocks and which are statues.

Our first Moai sighting! I had found a pocket-sized Panasonic Lumix at Costco that has a 30X zoom lens and this was the first opportunity to see how well it performs. I think I made a good buy! These Moai are the Ahu Tahai group that sits just to the north of Hanga Roa on the map above.

These are the Ahu Te Pahu group further up the coast.

The most spectacular group still standing is this one: the Ahu Tongariki. It is located on the side opposite the main landing area at Hanga Roa. The group consists of fifteen Moai that have been restored to their original location and positions. The Moai groups on Rapa Nui do not face the sea. Unfortunately, due to the location of the group and the position of the ship, I had to go all the way out with my zoom (30X optical extended to 60X digital). At that resolution, the pictures tend to be much more pixelated, but hey, it’s still as close as we’re going to get!

Notice that in all of the pictures of Moai, the statues face inland. So far the various scientific explorers and pundits who have been investigating Rapa Nui have no rational explanation as to why they appear to “moon” passing ships, so I will not offer one either…

Tomorrow is another sea day and the following day is Pitcairn Island. Since we couldn’t get into Rapa Nui, I don’t expect that we will be able to get into Pitcairn – but there is always hope!


Stay tuned…