As well as a cat and hen with chicks we now seem to be adopted by a German Shepherd too.

It turns out the coffee we bought was instant but nevertheless it was nice to have breakfast on the balcony with a soundtrack from our favourite cockerel.

Today we hired a 4WD. Car hire is really expensive here so we are only going to have a vehicle when we need one. The main dealers charge nearly £100 per day so we hired from a company recommended by our hosts. The one thing about Easter Island is that there is no car insurance whatsoever and you pay for whatever damage you do. Luckily the roads are quiet though the occasional cow or horse blocks the way.

First we headed to the south of the island and paid to go in the National Park (£30) at the CONAF station. We then wound up a bumpy road towards Orongo, a ceremonial village perched on the rim of a volcanic crater overlooking the ocean. Historically this is where an annual tournament took play where young men from each tribe swam to an islet 1 km out to sea (shark infested) to get the first nesting bird's egg of the Spring. There were low, stone houses there overlooking the islet and you could imagine crowds gathering to watch.

The volcanic crater was filled with gloopy looking water and is protected because of the diversity of the fauna and flora there.

Next we drove up the South East coast which is dotted with "ahu" - ceremonial plinths where lines of Moai used to stand. The first plinth we saw was at Vinapu and the masonery work was superb, considering the builders has no modern tools. In front was a sad Moai head, toppled from its perch. Behind the plinth were a couple of "top knots" that the Moai wear made out of red volcanic scoria.

Driving up the coast there are the remains of many plinths, some in better repair than others and the remains of toppled Moai, many facing nose down. No one knows why they were toppled but guess it was tribal warfare. Interestingly the faces turn their back on the sea and look inland.

The island isn't very big and soon we could see Rano raraku, a volcano where the moai were quarried and carved. It was a surreal sight, hundreds of heads poking out from the grass with their pointy noses and high cheekbones. Buried below were their bodies. Given that this is the main tourist attraction here and also that we are in the Christmas season, there were surprisingly few people here. One of the Moai, "El Gigante" (the giant) lay half carved out of the rock, more than 20 metres long.

In the distance, we could see Tongariki down on the shore. This is a line of 15 Moai that were damaged and swept inland by the tsunami of the 1960 Chilean earthquake. Some Japanese benefactors paid for them to be restored and they stand magnificently together with the blue sky for a back drop. It was great to have an understanding of what they moai would have originally looked like.

Driving back to town, we foraged for the ingredients to make up a meal - spinach ravioli and a Bechamel sauce heated up in the microwave. We sat later overlooking the Tahai moai and watched the sun set over the Pacific.