After the heat of yesterday, we weren’t too
disappointed to wake to a drizzly day. We chatted to Jen, an open and
independent German/ New Zealander who spoke 6 languages and would have been
annoyingly attractive was she not just so damn nice.
Our mission for the day was to see some more of
the famous sights of the island and place the geocache coin that we found 4
years ago somewhere that might serve as recompense for our sloppiness.
The volcano Ranu Kau, with the staggeringly
beautiful lake residing in its extinct crater seemed like the perfect location.
Even on such a murky grey day we could see the striking contrast of its blue
water and green vegetation.
The location of Ranu Kau is deserving of its immense
beauty. The volcano sits on the edge of the island with just a small lip of land
before the cliffs drop dramatically down into the sea. This section is closed
to walkers but it is possible to take a path that circumnavigates part of the
crater and leads to the sacred village of Orongo.
The route was crazy windy and I feared I’d seen
the last of Matt as he negotiated the geocache area but he assured me that the
rocky outcrop meant he was protected by the wind and wasn’t as perilously close
to falling into a volcano as he seemed. Good stuff.
At the entrance of Orongo we met Carlos, the
ranger for the area and a devoted fan of The Beatles and Tom Jones. He told us
that he dreamed of going to Liverpool and Wales and seemed to be constantly on
the verge of bursting into song. It was all a bit incongruous to be on the site
of a distant and ancient cult and be talking about how Tom Jones still has very
sexy hips despite his advancing years.
So, Orongo was a ceremonial village, built when
the belief in the Moais was changing, and used for just a few weeks at the
beginning of every Spring. From approximately the end of the 16th
Century until about 1867, the Make-Make cut used it for the Tangata- Manu
competition, where tribal chiefs, or their representatives, swam out to a
nearby islet and waited for the arrival of the spotted tern. The aim was to get
back to the village with the first egg to be laid. It was an incredible deed of
endurance and physical strength and the winner was endowed as Tangatu-Manu
(birdman) and regarded as sacred for the rest of the year.
The site contains 54 mud and slab houses which
are partly set into the ground to shelter them from the powerful elements, and
overlooks both the volcano and the sea. They were built and used from the end
of 16th century to 1867 and it was interesting to see how solidly
built they were (though they have been reconstructed now) and marvel at their
tiny doorways. Orongo is also the main rock art area and there were lots of
impressive petroglyphs around but they were cordoned off, probably due to their
proximity to the edge, so we were unable to see them as closely as we would
have liked.
Thankfully, it cleared up a little while we were
there so we ate our delicious-looking but stale (I’m sensing a theme) cake and enjoyed
the views over the islet as well as the other aspect of the volcano.
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