This voyage was one leg of the Aurora's world cruise and I only did the portion that floated by Easter and Pitcairn Islands. I specifically took this cruise because it would get me close to the fabulous Easter Island Moai. Normaly, Easter island is difficult to reach. Flights are infrequent and facilities for larger ships are lacking. Even the early Polynesian settlers had a hard time finding a smooth protected landing beach along the rugged shores.
It is hard to imagine how people interpreted the world confined to a tiny rock, once the great Polynesian voyages ceased and they were left with only stories of an outside world. From the ship we could clearly see the impressive Tongariki Ahu with its huge Moai facing the sea. It seems they were specially placed to greet visitor coming by boat.
From there we sailed to the tiny jagged rock called Pitcairn Island. It has 69 residents and as we sailed up, a lot of them jumped into a large wooden boat and puttered up to the ship. Once onboard, much to everyone's surprise, they set up a busy market fair on the aft deck which was immediately swamped with buyers jostling for stamps, crafts and baseball caps. I got off in Papaete where I spent two more days exploring the local markets and just enjoying the hotel pool courtesy of the airlines which had cancelled my flight out. |
