Rapa Nui

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We were really looking forward to visiting Easter Island, and have to say that our week there did not disappoint. We stayed at a great guesthouse called Te’ora, which had a fantastic location - a prime time spot for watching the sunsets with a Pisco Sour in hand (the national beverage - yummy!)

The accommodation has a mascot, a lovely dog called Michigan who takes on the job of body guard to all the guests. He often followed us out on walks into Hanga Roa, making sure we got home safely. The village is actually very relaxed, and at the most Michigan's duties involved chasing off the occasional stray dog or horse…

The weather was perfect - although the sun was so hot it often felt like it was melting our skin off! Finding shade was nearly impossible as the island has very few trees (a legacy of the Moai building culture, which used up all the islands wood for transporting the statues!)

Our full first day was spent on a tour visiting all the main sites and learning about the origins and history of the Rapa Nui people and the Moai. We also took in Te Pito Kura (The Naval of Light) - a stone that is said to have magical powers. While we watched the magnetic stone play havoc with a compass, Sabrina our guide went for a paddle and came back with a local delicacy - sea urchin - for us to try. Si stepped up to the plate and reported that it tasted "salty".

The islands roads can be fairly rough, with dirt tracks outside the town and away from the main tourist spots. Locals often gallop past like cowboys and even leave their horses tied up outside the bars - a slightly safer way of getting home after a big night…

To see some of the more remote parts of the island and cope with the roads, we hired a quad and let loose on our own, had an awesome time zipping around. We searched out some rather cool caves (one started with a tight crawl but opened out into a large chamber with two huge windows giving views out to sea). We even managed to raise ourselves to see a magical sunrise at Tongariki - totally worth dodging the wild horses in the dark! At the end of a day exposed to the dust on the back of the quad, we looked like we’d had a dodgy fake tan.

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