With the Navel of the World.
I thought the nosey parkers and voyeurs amongst you would go straight to the navel anyway.
Good innit!
Thanks again for the day Dana. It was good craic. 'Craic' is Irish for good conversation, laughs and a jolly good time. That it was.
Another Important Announcement.
Noushka has produced a fine 7lb 4oz son at 0315 on Thursday, 10 May 2007. Called James.
What's this with the 'J's'. Jack, Joseph and James? What is that all about?
Nephew Robert and family will not read this. He put in a dodgy firewall round his computer and it has turned round and bit his ass. The house is now internet free. Even the signal that is paid for can't get in!
But I'm a great uncle again. Cool.
And Robert may get to go to Wembley after all.
Congrats all round.
Ahu Tongariki
Next stop, Ahu Tongariki. Arguably the most impressive ahu on the island.
Fifteen moai on a superb platform, near the quarry.
This shot was taken from the quarry by a Swedish whaling expedition in 1903. They were supposed to go to the Antarctic but they sort of diverted and never got past Rapa Nui and Tahiti.
Tough decision eh?
Ice, cold, dead whales to butcher, penguin stew every night with no tomato ketchup? Or balmy Polynesian islands and their fabled attractions?
Not exactly too close to call is it?
But, as is usual on Rapa Nui, the ahu has a bit of previous form.
It is built where it is, on the scale that it is because:
1. The ahu site is dead near the quarry at Rano Raraku, and it's all downhill to the coastal plain.
2. The coastal plain goes right down to the sea shore, easy for haulage.
So.Just make a platform out of hundreds of tons of stones. Then carve fifteen, 20 to 30 ton, statues out of rock with stone tools. Sixteen if you count OddJob standing guard at the entrance.
Then, somehow, move statues down a mountain and across a coastal plain, no more than a mile or two and erect.
Oh, and then carve 32 eye sockets.
Deceptively simple instructions.
This is not your flat pack cupboard though.
This is your actual, big time, make it up as you go along mega-project. And nearly 900 of the things have been recorded already on the island. Lots still in the quarry, many fallen by the wayside, some even erected.
Can't help but be impressed, can you?
Our guide, Andrea, who is Rapa Nui, told us that there were several theories about how the moai were moved. Sleds, rollers etc. All wrong.
From their oral tradition, the Rapa Nui know the statues 'WALKED'!
The same way that you might 'walk' a freezer across the kitchen to get it in place i.e. rock it onto the back two corners and move one corner at a time. Into position.
It gets better. The bases of the moai, ex quarry, were sloped so the statue was taller at the back than at the front. So, by the time they had been walked into position on their back edges, these had worn away and the bases were more or less flat. Ready to erect with the minimum of base work. I wonder how many flat base, ex quarry, statues were 'walked' and the bases had to be re-carved flat before someone tumbled to that little trick.
Except, of course, it's not a titchy freezer and it's not 4 yards across your nice smooth tiled kitchen floor.
It's a soddin' great 30 ton lump of rock that has taken months to carve, ages to get down the mountain and ages to 'walk' to it's site. Maybe up to 12 kilometers. Across boulder strewn, rubbly, rough ground. THEN, you have to put it on a platform. And if, at any stage, you drop it, it will break and you will have to start again.
I would have plumped for fishing or gathering reed I think. Moai making sounds like it would play merry hell with your hands!
OK, so you have got your moai safely on their platform, and assuming nobody pushes them over for spite, there they are for all eternity or until the salty air erodes them away.Wrong again.
Think tsunami!
One came in 1960 and blindly conquered, sweeping Tongarikan moai inland for several hundred metres.
This guy landed on his back in such a position as to allow this photo to be taken with his quarry birthplace as background. Now, that is some tsunami.
Happily, in 1992, help was at hand.In 1992 a team from Japan brought in cranes and other heavy equipment. Their mission: restore Ahu Tongariki. Working under the direction of Chilean archaeologist, Claudio Cristino the task took five years.
So now we can see Ahu Tongariki in all its glory and well impressive it is too.
OK, that's the travelogue, here are the pix, for no other reason than I like them.
Slightly less impressive photo, due to presence of tall portly man with, apparently, no hair.
Pic: Dana Graphics again.
At this juncture, I did have my doubts about using Dana Graphics for pix of me..
After taking several successful photos of me at the quarry, Dana started taking phantom photos, so this shot was eventually taken after much walking about, pointing at camera buttons and giggling.
Eyes Front!
And spot the birdie
From the back.
This was actually one of the last shots I took at this ahu.
All the rest of the party had settled for less than 500 pictures and made their way to the bus.
Not wishing to get on the wrong side of Andrea (you wouldn't, believe me), I suggested to happy snapping Dana that we might make our way back to the bus.
'Oh, it'll be OK' she said.
'I can walk faster than you so you'll be last and it'll be all your fault'
Bitch!
From the back but a bit nearer.
Tight crop
In All Its Glory. Pretty good platform too.
The Navel of the World
The oldest known traditional name of Rapa Nui is Te Pito o Te Henua. This means ' The Navel of the World'.
Some idea of your own importance I should say. Maybe warranted. When your nearest neighbour is Pitcairn Island, 1000 kilometres away, you ain't going to get much passing trade are you?
So it must have been like the Planet Cricket in ' The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy '. I think it was Planet Cricket. As their planet was permanently cloud covered, they thought they were the only people in anywhere. Not that they knew where 'anywhere' was, cos they thought they were the only ones anywhere, anytime, anyhow. One day a spaceship fell through the cloud and crashed.
What a surprise that was for the Cricketers.
Must have been a bit like that on Rapa Nui at times.
So on to Te Pito Kura.
The navel
The navel is the big round stone in the middle of the rock circle. It is very tactile and slightly magnetic. On a nice hot day it is also comfortingly warm to the touch.
Around it are four smaller navels for you to sit on, warm your bottom and so, if you wish, lay hands on the Big Navel.
Hence the phrase
'Warm hands, warm heart'
Left to right.
Dana, one nice, anonymous Greek lady, the bottom half of the other nice, anonymous Greek lady, Andrea and a Japanese lady, in the pink eyeshade.
All soaking up the warmth from the stones.
Me pointing out the bleedin' obvious to Dana. Who is mugging at the camera instead of paying attention.This pose was a bit of a poke at the media who make people do daft things like pointing at a whacking great rock for the photo.
Good view of mini-navels here. Bit too low for me to be comfortable though.
OK for Dana. She is only 4 feet 7 inches tall. (Not really)
Don't you think that I have been very restrained with the warm bottom jokes?
Cos this is a family show.
More soon. Sorry about the false alarm e mail. Must have been button happy.
Additions and Errata
1. The photos of Ahu Tongariki at sunset and and the tsunamied moai with the quarry weren't mine. If they are yours, I hope you don't mind me using them. They were too good to leave out.
2 I invented the bit about the Swedish whaler photo. They were Norwegians. With PhotoShop.
