Tag Archives: pacific ocean

Herewith, a continuation of my tales from the mid-South-Pacific side…

In my previous post I gave an introductory overall picture of Easter Island, while now it’s time to have a look at some specific sites. Where to begin? Let’s start with the moai; specifically – the quarry where all the raw material for the statues was sourced.

Our guide told us how the island was divided among nine or ten family clans, with land belonging to each clan radiating from a central point to the coast – like slices of a pizza, and one of these families operated the moai quarry on its slice of pizza, supplying statues to its neighbors. Completed statues were somehow transported down toward the shore to a “showroom” for other clans to come have a look, choose one, then take it off to their slice of pizza!

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After finally getting to Easter Island (in two senses of the word “finally”) – let’s get going around this fascinating island…

I left off last time with our arriving at Mataveri International Airport (IATA code: IPC). The airport itself is nothing remarkable, so I’ll skip ahead: what’s there to see, how many days you should spend here, and what you should pack and wear. And of course, the eternal questions: how did people even get here way back when – and why did they carve these famous stone statues? ->

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As mentioned, Easter Island – also known as Rapa Nui – had long been one of my dream destinations…

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Back in school, I think my favorite books were those hefty tomes all about geography, travel, and the world’s remotest corners. That early fascination really took root in my mind and has stayed with me ever since – as you can see in this blog!

Over time, some of those geographical – on-paper – discoveries started turning into real discoveries: the Galapagos, Tibet, Mount Fuji, Drake Passage, Tasmania (the latter – great trip, but we nearly ended up being stranded there (or on mainland Australia) for… years due to our still being there in late March… 2020!).

However, some places I’d always dreamed of visiting stubbornly remained on my to-do list – seemingly just too far and inaccessible. But then, this year, I finally got to visit two of these out-of-the-way places. Back in winter it was the Nazca Lines; and this fall it was Rapa Nui – better known as Easter Island! Oh yes…

“Where’s that?” some might ask – especially if they didn’t pay much attention in geography class. Honestly though, even those who did would probably struggle to show you Rapa Nui on a world map on their first try. Don’t believe me? Go on then – give it a shot! (spoiler: answer in next pic; no peeking!)…

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My summer tales from the Kamchatkan side have only just begun, but now – quick fast-forward to the present for a China interlude over a few days…

I spent my 59^th birthday in the Chinese resort Sanya on the tropical island province of Hainan, which, actually, seems to be the only large resort of its kind in China. It’s also literally the southernmost city of China, with Vietnam just 250-300km across the water and Beijing a full ~2500km away.

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All righty. After our brief inspection of the Commander Islands, we raced back to the Athens and set sail for Kamchatka. But no matter how fast we sailed, we couldn’t keep ahead of the storm – approaching sternwards. That last detail – sternwards – was actually a blessing in disguise: if it had come in from the port or starboard side it could have spelled disaster. So, in a word: phew.

In the photos below it may not be easy to grasp just how high those waves got: much higher than the Athens! Good Lord were they powerful – rocking the boat around like… a bucking bronco. Not for the squeamish. Most of the posse stayed on their bunks for a full two days while the storm passed, with only a few occasionally adventuring out to the dining room ).

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We’ve already had a few ‘B-sides’ – Aniva and Tyuleny – on our Kurils adventure. Now it was time for a bonus track – a previously unreleased rarity, as it were: the Commander Islands!

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Throughout human history there have been many interesting moments and fascinating stories. Out of all of them, I reckon one of the most amazing is the story about how homo sapiens settled on remote islands across the Pacific.

Around two or three thousand years ago, from the shores of what is today Papua New Guinea, they sailed in the simplest and tiniest of boats, generation after generation, century after century, to populate island after island, apparently even reaching the shores of South America – 15,000 kilometers away!

Archeological research of this great eastward emigration is a little unconvincing so far, and anyway, surely many of the traces of mankind from back then will have been washed away or submerged under the rising ocean levels and lost forever. However – hurray for the geneticists! – modern-day investigations scientific alchemy now give us a detailed picture of the timing and direction of the two main branches of the eastward exodus and building up of the populations of Oceania.

The first wave of migration (a quick glance at trusty old Wikipedia tells me) took place some 30 to 50 thousand years ago from southeast Asia via modern-day Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, to Australia and the islands of Melanasia. Now, I’m no anthropologist, but something tells me that back then they probably didn’t need a boat to get to Vanuatu or even Fiji – they could have walked, or paddled ). The sea level was much lower then than it is today, and the ocean never gets that deep round these parts (as you can see on Google Maps) anyway. I reckon they didn’t make it further to Samoa as they weren’t sailors.

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Herewith, I continue my narrative from the fantastically fascinating Fijian islands and atolls.

Quick reminder: Fiji looks like this:

Here:

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I’ve been mentioning Fiji a few times in the last few posts. Well now I’m not just mentioning it, I’m providing you herewith my photo report thereon! As you can expect, it’s more of the same: Polydise! See for yourself! ⇨

But wait! Not quite Polydise!…

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