Near-death experience

Rano Kau Crater

We headed out in our Daihatsu Terios after breakfast, heading south behind the airport runway, going uphill towards Rano Kau crater.  The crater is located in the south-western tip of the island.  It was also where the park admission fee was collected.

Rano Kau crater was a beautiful sight, not just with the crater, but with the endless ocean beside it.  There are a couple of very small islets (more like rocky outcrops) visible from here.  Traditionally, a nominated member of each of the island’s tribes would swim out to the islet just offshore each September, when the seabirds migrated here, and whoever secured the first egg would secure his tribal leader ruling rights for the next year.

We saw some petroglyphs (rock art) carved into rocks sitting in the grass here.  There were also round formations of stacked flat rocks, being remains of houses which formed a village here.  They resembled Pancake Rocks in the South Island of New Zealand.  The place is known as Orongo.

Kim and Rodger walked down to the crater while I only made it down half-way.  I didn’t consider worthwhile with the dense bush.

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Near-death experience

We were very pleased to get out of the high wind and hop into the car.  As we drove off-road on the gently rolling hills up-and-down, we decided to make a scenic stop.  Just as well we did.  A metre away from where we had stopped was in fact a sheer cliff that dropped off straight into the Pacific.  From inside the car, it looked like another one of those gently rolling hills.

Happy that we were still alive, we returned into the car.  It was a more careful and sombre drive back to the township Hanga Roa for lunch at Cafe Ra’a again.

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The South-East Coast

After lunch, we drove up the south-east coast of the island.  Ahu Vaihu and Ahu Akahanga weren’t much to write home about, both comprising of toppled moais.  We continued to Rano Raraku near the eastern tip of the island.  I describe this as the moai factory.  We could see some moais that are part-way being carved, holes in the rock where moais had been made and taken away, moais lying on the ground and others that were standing or damaged.

We walked up to the crater here at Rano Raraku.  While it wasn’t as spectacular as this morning’s, it did offer the island’s main line-up of fifteen moais at Ahu Tongariki.

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Our last stop for the day was at Ahu Tongariki.  I had planned for us to be here in the afternoon to catch it at the best possible light.  It paid off, even though the light was interrupted by clouds at times.  I guess Ahu Tongariki is what we came to Easter Island for.  We were happy to have seen the biggest line-up of moais, including the heaviest one that was ever completed, in the line-up here.

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Dinner worries

Rodger drove on the way back.  A horrible sound came from under the car.  We took a look and found a length of wire had been wrapped around the drive shaft.  We had to reverse and park to untangle it.  With that out of the way, we returned to town via Poike Peninsula (the eastern tip of the island),

When it came to choosing somewhere to eat tonight, Rodger’s apprehension with food really showed up.  He tried to talk us into eating at higher-end place.  He used lines like “Where won’t we get sick?” and “Don’t think about the money; it is a holiday”.  The latter doesn’t work with me as I travel a lot and cannot treat travel as a holiday.

We ended up at the Aloha Pub because it looked nicer.  Rodger try to put that decision on to us though.  I had a grilled fish on a salad with palmito (similar to bamboo shoots or artichoke heart).  I liked the palmito.  Kim and Rodger had fried potatoes topped with beef strips and cheese sauce.  Rodger ended up picking on the meat and leaving most of the potatoes.  It was a very bad value dinner.

Incidental notes

While the heaviest moai sits at Ahu Tongariki, the tallest one lies fallen near the eastern tip of the island. Paro moai, if re-erected, would be about 10m high.

There are no rivers or permanent streams on Easter Island. The ground is quite fertile with dark or red earth, but is also quite porous.