Timeline 6th Nov to
10th Nov 2005

With its nearest neighbours on Pitcairn Island over 1900km away and the Chilean mainland almost 4000km east, Easter Island can easily be regarded as one of the most isolated places on earth.

And even though it is just 117sqkm in size and only 24km across at widest, it lays claim to three different names.

To Europeans it is known as Easter Island following its discovery by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen on Easter Sunday 1722. In South America it is known as Isla de Pascua, this also the island's official name, and within Polynesia the name is Rapa Nui. The multiple names offer a glimpse into the turbulent history and conflict of the island and people.

It is now widely accepted that the once stable society collapsed amongst chaos and civil war but the cause of this is still the subject of speculation and theory. Recorded history picks up again with Peruvian slavers who came and ravaged the island's population with the remainder being introduced to smallpox. The Chilean government then intervened and annexed the island in 1888 but promptly leased the island to a wool company. This company governed as it wished with no regard for the islanders themselves until 1953, even implementing a policy of forced migration to Tahiti. How anyone managed to survive all this is astonishing. It wasn't until 1966 that the islanders were given status as citizens.

There are different theories as to where the original islanders came from. The most prevalent is that it was as a result of the steady migration east from the islands of Polynesia. The other is that it was from peoples from South America while the third offers, conveniently, that it was a mixture of the previous two. Certainly there is enough evidence to support all three. General culture and linguistics are similar to the rest of Polynesia while the advanced stonework and building styles are reminiscent of the Incas.

The island is so small in such a vast ocean that it's surprising anyone found it at all. There is only one settlement, Hanga Roa, where almost all of the island's 4000 inhabitants live; all are involved with tourism in some way. It is a pleasant, compact little town where there are as many horses on the road as cars and with the airport being situated along one edge of the town it makes for one of the quickest airport-to-hotel runs anywhere in the world. The runway is exceptionally long, designed as such, and capable of offering NASA space shuttles a dry option in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean.

Hanga Roa is small enough to easily walk around on foot but to explore the island fully it is best to hire a jeep. Out with the town, or "The Village" as it is referred to, there are only two paved roads, the rest being bumpy, dusty tracks.

Although we had more or less flown over the island en route to South America, and then been as far north in the continent as Bolivia, the lure had been too much and we embarked on a substantial back track.

With the exception of an English couple we met at the airport, also backpacking, it appeared we were the youngest visitors to Easter Island by a long way. There were more Western, middle aged tourists than any other demographic and, unfortunately for us, prices corresponded with this, as did the food on offer, all of which was overpriced Western fare. Pasta dishes were ubiquitous.

Most places closed around lunchtime, a legacy of Spanish South America, I assumed, but then few reopened. We soon realised that proprietors were making enough money that they need only open for half the day. GDP must be on a par with Monaco.

The island is roughly triangular resembling the shape of a delta wing and in each of the three corners there is an extinct volcano. With a 4WD it is possible, though by no means easy, to drive to the top of the highest of these peaks -- Terevaka -- from where the panoramic 360-degree view is incredible. It's from this height, when you look out at the ocean all around, that you truly appreciate just how small and isolated the island is.

Like Samoa, Easter Island is part of Polynesia. It has the same erratic and continually changeable weather, but unlike Samoa there are very few trees or lush forests and it's this occurrence that reveals the secret history of Easter Island.

The island is, of course, famous for the large stone statues, or "Moai". From what is known about the history of the island and its people it would appear these statues were the focus of an intense but peaceful rivalry amongst tribes for hundreds of years.

The Moai were constructed in honour of ancestors, erected on ancestral land, with the belief that they would look over the village and provide guidance and security -- this is supported with the fact that almost all of the Moai face inland. They were all excavated from the side of one of the extinct volcanoes. Remains of almost 400 hundred Moai can still be found in the quarry in varying stages of completion.

Being up close to the statues you truly appreciate the scale of work involved. The excavation, carving and transport of these statues must have taken colossal effort. They range in height from 2-10m but in the quarry there is an unfinished carving almost 20m in length suggesting an escalation in scope of work.

Every Moai is different but they all have similar features. A stern expression, arms by each side with hands clasped together resting on the potbelly. Some have hats and some have eyes, only one has both. This highly detailed and specialised sculpting by what was an essentially stone age people has intrigued archaeologists. The best examples of the monolithic sculptures are, in my opinion, at Ahu Tongariki (below) and Tahai.

At Ahu Tongariki, 15 of the Moai, all different shapes and sizes stand in line with only the Pacific Ocean as backdrop. It's a great location to watch the sunrise. At Tahai there are a handful of Moai scattered about with the remains of the village in the centre and it is here that the only fully complete Moai stands. This is one of the most idyllic spots on the island and is ideal for sunset viewing.

This tranquillity makes it easy to imagine how the old island civilisation lived peacefully for hundreds of years. But sometime between Spanish contact in 1770 and Captain Cook's arrival in 1774, tools were exchanged for weapons, Moai were purposely toppled and society violently collapsed.

No one knows for sure, but it is widely accepted that the arms race to build bigger and better Moai reached a catastrophic stage where the island was ravaged of all natural resources and chaos ensued.

The number of trees being logged for the transport of the rapidly growing number of Moai, which themselves were increasing in size, outstripped what was on the island. The escalating number of people involved in working the quarry disrupted the fine balance between those supplying food and those supplying statues.

Once all the trees were gone there was nothing to build boats, in which to fish -- soil and pollen studies have shown that the once abundant palm became completely extinct. This deforestation led to soil erosion and subsequent crop failure and so the people of Easter Island became unable to feed themselves. Chaos ensued.

And so a short-sighted exploitation of natural resources for short-term gain led to anarchy and took the population to the verge of extinction. Could this be a lesson for today's world?