60m
Today was split into 2 half day trips, both focusing on the south of the island. We started off by driving around the airport runway and past the fuel dump to a small location known as Vinapu. It was here where the first archaeologists to the island thought that Rapa Nui was descended from the Inca as the supporting wall for the mo’ai showed the same intricate detail as seen in Inca buildings. It was similar, but nothing as extensive, or quite as precise as places we had seen in Peru. Also, the DNA and looks of the people from Rapa Nui show tied with the Polynesians from Tahiti, and nothing like the squat people we had encountered in the Andes.
From here we drove up the side of the southern most volcano on the island and had a look into the caldera of Rano Kau. This caldera is only a out 3m deep, and recently the locals have introduced a small fish in order to prevent mosquitoes from breeding.
Our third stop was Orongo. After 1600 when the short-ears had rebelled against the long-ears (NOT a civil war), the king (read: long-ears) changed the whole culture of the island. No longer would people raise the mo’ai as reverence (not worship) to the ancestors, now they would recognise ‘the bird man’. Ok, how do you stop the workers from rebelling? Create competition amongst the workers. How do you do that? Organise a competition. So what kind of competition do you devise that keeps the workers under your control for another 280 years? The bird man competition.
So, basically, every year the terns visit Moto Nui, a small island 1400m off the south-western corner of the island. You get 1 competitor from all of the communities that make up Rapa Nui and then have them race down a 300m cliff, swim the 1400m crossing, camp out for up to 5 days, find a tern’s egg, safely transport the egg back over the 1400m crossing and back up the 300m cliff. Simples??? Well, no. A number of competitors did fall to their deaths, and apparently ‘disappeared’ on the island waiting for the terns to lay their eggs. But the reward? You got to pick one of the princesses to marry! Clever nes pas?
Our last stop for the morning was the port of Hanga Roa and as we walked around we got to see a number of turtles swimming in the harbour. They are protected, so are quite comfortable swimming even in the harbour with a number of fishing and diving boats coming and going.
We then had 2 1/2 hours for lunch, but I had found out that if you visited the Information Centre that they would stamp your passport with a Rapa Nui stamp do I visited here first. I then spent an hour looking around Hanga Roa through a number of tourist shops. Most had exactly the same items for sale, most of which weren’t interesting and a lot would not be allowed back into Oz. I did manage to grab lunch at a surfer cafe right on the coast which provided a nice breeze and view during the time.
The afternoon started with a quick visit to Tahai, which is a group of coastal mo’ai but one of them has gad coral and obsidian placed in the eyes and his scoria topknot placed back. You can see the concrete where he has had his head fixed back on, and at the base for support. From here we visited Ahu Akivi where seven mo’ai were raised to represent the explorers who discovered Rapa Nui. These are the only mo’ai with names, but no one knows which mo’ai represents which explorer. They are also the only mo’ai on the island that face out to sea.
After this quick stop we got to visit Puna Pau which is the scoria quarry where all of the topknots were carved. In comparison to Rano Raraku, this was a disappointment. There were a couple of topknots lying around, but none of the majesty of the main quarry, with ghe mo’ai being carved from the tuff.
Our last visit was to Huri A Urenga where there is a lonely mo’ai dating back to the start of the statues, around 1450, except this one has 4 hands, reaching towards his navel. Some say the four hands represent the four seasons as he faces towards the sun on the summer solstice. Others just say that the artist made a mistake. Not sure that I agree with this theory as the hands have been carved with some detail.
Once again we dropped off everyone at their hotel with me being the last one off as my hotel was the furthest from the centre.