I feel we should get the negatives out of the way first. Easter Island, the most isolated inhabited island on earth, is not the sort of tropical south seas island you have dreamed about since your adolescence. There is no coral reef, no atoll, only one sandy beach and no sign of Polynesian outriggers crewed with beautiful people fishing in a lagoon. Now don’t get me wrong. There are beautiful people but they’re more likely to use fibreglass boats, drive 4×4 cars and wear jeans with t-shirts. The island was formed by violent volcanic action, lumps of lava and craters are everywhere. Black rugged cliffs and caves all over the place. Tourism is the main activity but they do it nicely in my experience.

Tourists go to Easter Island to see the giant stone statues or moai, and why not? There are 887 of them and they are magnificent. Some people go for the scuba-diving. The water is clear but there are few fish. Others, like me, go for the atmosphere, the chance to hear the legends and feel the history.

I say history but there are many gaps in the island’s story. Polynesian history is an oral tradition. The islanders, they call themselves Rapa nui, have been exploited and almost wiped out in the past.  There are no books or manuscripts. Unique to the island is a form of hieroglyphic writing called Rongorongo. This has still not been deciphered. History comes in the form of stories, songs, chants and the re-enactment of rituals and ceremonies.

Rongorongo

An example of the many traditions is the Birdman ceremony. The Tangata manu, or birdman, was appointed each year to be a sort of paramount chief. He was treated as holy, to touch him was taboo. In the spring of each year the representatives of each village gathered on top of the cliffs at Orongo. They awaited the arrival of migrating seabirds. Out to sea, a thousand feet below, there are three islands. The competitors had to climb down the cliff, swim out to the largest and most distant island, find the first egg laid by the Sooty Terns, swim back, re-climb the cliff and deliver the egg, unbroken. The chief of the winner’s village became the Tangata manu. The athlete presumably received some prize or honour for his efforts.