From Easter Island it was then onto the South American mainland and Chile.  Our first port on Chilean mainland was Valparaiso which is one of Chile’s oldest cities.  It is also the gateway to what they call the central valley and Santiago.  Valparaiso is surrounded by steep and very populated hills and has some very impressive old buildings in the city that are in various states of condition, and cable cars. The cable cars or funiculars are all around the city and are used to get up and down the hills surrounding the city.  They also have old electric trolley buses that were fun to ride around in.  We had a great day in Valparaiso and hopefully the rest of Chile we see will be as good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next stop on land was one of the main destinations we wanted to see, Easter Island.  We started to worry a little bit when some of the passengers on the ship were saying that a lot of the times you couldn’t get off the ship at Easter Island if the seas were a bit rough.  Some people had been here 4 times and have never been able to get off the ship.  Easter Island is part of Chile and this was where we went through all our immigration procedures so there was a little delay in being able to leave the ship.  Going to shore at Easter Island is all by tender boats and the sea conditions play a big part in determining if you can get ashore, unless you fly in of course.  Lady Luck must have been with us on the day because the sea conditions were pretty good when we arrived and we were able to get ashore.  We had booked a tour of Easter Island which was very good and we got to see most of the better sites with the volcanic quarry where the islands 900 moai were carved probably being the highlight. At the quarry you can still see unfinished moai carvings in the rocks.   Easter Island only measures about 23 kilometres by 11 kilometres but packs a lot into a small place with the moai carvings situated in several places around the island.  All the moai face inland on the island which they believe was to stop them leaving the island.  After all the talk, we did feel very fortunate that we could get off the boat and see the statues on our first visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Papeete we had three days at sea until we got to Pitcairn Island.  During this little sea day interlude the ship had some Australia Day celebrations planned seeing that approximately 1500 of the 2000 passengers on board were Australians.  It wasn’t a bad day and was held around the pool deck with a few games for the more daring passengers who were prepared to embarrass themselves in front of a lot of spectators.

 

 

 

 

After recovering from the Australia Day celebrations, next was our cruise around Pitcairn Island. As all history buffs will know this was the island where Fletcher Christian and the mutineers from the Bounty colonised.  You just don’t realise how isolated this island is until you get here.  We did a couple of laps around the island but were not able to get off the ship to visit. They have a ship every three months to the island and that is their only way on and off the island.  The island literally looks just like the top of a mountain sticking out of the ocean. There are no beaches to see and the lowest part of the land is where the islanders launch their boat from, that they use to unload supplies from the ship that comes four times a year.  If anyone is keen to relocate to Pitcairn Island they are giving away free blocks of land to encourage immigration and new settlers.  It probably won’t be a very flat block and I think you would have to grow a lot of your own food and love fishing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tahiti and the capital Papeete were our next port of call. We had been to Papeete  before on a previous cruise so had booked yacht and snorkeling tour.  As we were arriving on a Sunday there would be not much open in Papeete.  Unfortunately for all of us the night before we arrived they had the worst flooding in Papeete for over forty years and they had declared a state of emergency. This meant that the ship was only allowed to berth at the port but no passengers were allowed off.  After sitting in port all day on a wet and miserable day, we were glad when we sailed away later in the day. Hopefully on our return trip the weather will be better and we can get of the ship as we have a 4wd tour booked to some waterfalls, valleys and parks.

 

 

 

 

Well it was goodbye to Papeete and hopefully to some nicer weather going forward.

 

From Tonga, it was then full steam to American Samoa and Pago Pago. The sail into Pago Pago is quite spectacular as it is surrounded by mountains. We booked an island tour and were glad we did as they didn’t seem to be really set up well for tourists at this present stage. Our first visit was the Tauese P.F. Sunia Ocean Centre that just explained a bit about the ocean and a video that nearly put everyone to sleep. It was then back onto the bus and off to look at Camel Rock that is a rock just off the shoreline that kind of resembles a camel with some imagination. We then drove onto Auasi Beach for a swim and drinks which was the best part of the tour. Once back at the port area we just did a walk around the town/commercial centre. The people of American Samoa are doing it pretty tough at the moment with their economy being very depressed. They rely on fishing as their major income and one of the larger processing plants has closed down putting over 700 people out of work. Not sure if we would rush back to look at this place again as there didn’t really seem to be the infrastructure in place to fully support tourism. The sail away was as spectacular as the arrival though and with a few drinks at the sunset bar it finished up an enjoyable day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tahiti is our next stop and the capital Papeete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Auckland, it was another few days at sea to Tonga. Tonga is the last kingdom in Polynesia and has a ruling monarchy in place that we felt most Tongans were indifferent about. We hired a small scooter for the day and got to see about 80% of Tongatapu which is the largest island in the realm and has the capital of Nuku’alofa based on it. The island has some great white sand beaches and some of the best blowholes we have ever seen. They go along the coast for several kilometres and when the waves come you see them all going off in a big long line.  Tonga also didn’t seem to be overly developed for tourism yet which was nice to see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Tonga it is all aboard for American Samoa .