Easter Island/Rapa Nui

We have been excited about visiting Easter Island all cruise.

We have also been trying all cruise not to get too excited because from day 1, after talking to many experienced cruisers, we discovered that it is at most a 50% chance of actually going ashore. Easter Island is a water shuttle port only and can only be done in the most favourable of conditions.

We had 4 sea days from Peru to get to Easter Island. The first 2 of these were quite rough seas but we kept our fingers (and toes) crossed.

On day 3 conditions improved and we were also informed that our arrival time and shore excursion were being put back an hour or 2 – surely a positive sign???

Finally the day arrived – we were just on the limit of it being safe to use the water shuttles! We huddled in the Provence Restaurant nervously waiting for our shore excursion number to be called. Huge relief when, only 45mins behind schedule, we were called.

I had 2 feet on the water shuttle when it all went horribly wrong. My back leg (left) slipped out from behind me, and I don’t really know how, but I managed to gash it badly. Gorey photo to follow! Another passenger passed me a towel and I was able to apply pressure to my leg until Mark got on the shuttle. I left Mark with strict instructions to take lots of photos and then got whisked to the medical centre.

Beautiful, any West knows where ‘sympathy’ is situated in the dictionary and knowing how tough Gayle is, I proceeded ashore with the expectation that she would be stitched up and on the next water shuttle coming in.

So once I hit the wharf, I was hassling Immigration, Princess Cruise Security and Excursion staff, and they were all expecting this 6′ 2″ red head to be on the next water shuttle and they would let her through and get her on the next tour if they could.

After stalling the tour as long as I could, the next water shuttle arrived with no Gayle. So I hopped on my tour bus and went to Ahu A Kivi, a sacred site that has the only seven Moai that face the ocean. All the other moai on the island face inwards and are erected to protect and bring prosperity to their clan and village and face away from the sea. Moai statues were considered by the early people of Rapa Nui as their ancestors or Tupuna that were believed to be the reincarnation of important kings or leaders of their clans.

According to traditional stories, the Ahu A Kivi moais are looking back towards where the Rapa Nui people once came from.

The second stop was to visit the Ahu Huri A Urenga ‘The Astronomer’. This is the only known moai to have four hands. Which is believed to represent the four seasons.

The monument Ahu Huri A Urenga is astronomically aligned with the winter solstice; on the shortest day of the year (around 21st of June), the moai will face the rising sun. After this date, the days will be getting longer again. The ahu is aligned to this event with a precision of within a single degree.

The final visit of the tour was Orongo, a ceremonial village used by the Rapa Nui people during the birdman era. It’s located on the brink of the volcano Rano Kau, looking out towards the sea.

Bird Man dwellings

Bird Man dwelling with roof removed for viewing inside

The saddle between the volcano (on the left) and the sea (on the right) is believed how the Birdman accessed the sea.

Island that they had to swim out and back from

The annual “birdman” competition (Tangata manu) took place here in which a representative from each of the tribes fought. Competitors would climb more than 200 m down the cliff wall, swim out to the islet called Motu Nui, retrieve a newly layed egg from the manutara bird, swim back and climb up the cliff again. The first competitor to return with an intact egg was declared winner and the Village Chief would earn the privileges of king for 12 months. The winning birdman was offered to choose a wife from one of the virgin girls from Ana O Keke (“Virgin Cave”) where the girls had been trapped to obtain a white skin, which was considered a sign of beauty.

On returning to the ship, many of the Cruise staff were asking me how Big Red was, as they hadn’t seen her. On returning to our stateroom, I found Gayle ready and dressed to go ashore and visit the local area. After much trepidation and amazing strength, Gayle safely reboarded the rocking water shuttle and went ashore to put her feet on Easter Island.

Made it!

Well it wasn’t quite the day I had planned, but I can happily say that I have been not just to but on Easter Island and seen Moai up close – just not as many as I would have liked! I also got to see a turtle swimming away – bonus!