Motorcycles in NZ

New Zealand, biker Heaven?

Written by Gilles

As a motorcycle enthusiast (me, not Lynn) being in NZ is pretty good for the soul, that's assuming you have one? The roads alone on the South Island are enough to convert anyone with a cold heart towards motorcycles into a hard core biker. The scenery, mountains, river, glaciers, ocean, it never really ends and lack of traffic makes it a top destination to ride in. Of course it goes without saying that the kiwis friendliness is unsurpassed and their accents aren't too shabby either which only adds to the already charming NZ landscape.

The Kiwis have a passion for all things mechanical, and actually everything non mechanical as well, but they are especially fond of their motorbikes, new and old, and even more fond of the creators of two of the most famous rides that ever came out of NZ . These two bike creators are known globally for different but equally impressive reasons, one is John Britten and the other Burt Munroe (played by Anthony Hopkins in the movie The World’s Fastest Indian). They are definitely proud of these two New Zealanders and they both are a testament to NZ ingenuity and that never give up attitude.

Trivia-Oddly enough the two gents from different eras share a common link- John Britten's motorcycle company built the bikes used in the The World's Fastest Indian movie, and well I guess the other thing in common is unfortunately they both have passed away.

Good on ya mate!

“John Britten was a visionary, a genius, a motivational legend who created the distinctive home-built bright pink and blue Britten motorcycle that achieved iconic status world-wide”.


It's hard to explain to a non Motor head the significance of both Britten and Munroe, Britten especially. John Britten was able to produce a world class one off motorbike working out of his garage with only a small team of helpers and friends. The Britten bike was capable of not only competing with the best that the Japanese corporate machine could offer but actually beat them on occasion!! Today, that would be compared to you or me building a Formula One car in the backyard and beating the likes of Team Ferrari or Team McLaren on the F1 circuit, it's unheard of.

It was John's technical genius and his dedication to his belief that he could build such an advanced machine to compete on the world stage that sets him apart from most men. It wasn't just a pipe dream to him, it was to become reality. Where most fail to even conceptualize their dreams, John put his together from plan to product in a very short period of time and now had is own offering to the God of Speed.

Britten built a radical 300kph+ V1000 twin using carbon/kevlar composite for the top chassis ( there was no frame per se) carbon/kevlar rear swing arm and front girder style forks that used only one shock. He also designed and built the engines in his back yard, molded and casted. The whole bike was designed with speed in mind and with John's theories of aerodynamics he did just that, go fast! ( There's too many features to go through right now and there are plenty of websites about him if you want to take a look go to http://www.britten.co.nz/) . His bike was capable of over 300kph and produced at least 166 horsepower at 11,000 rpm so I'd suggest if you're gonna ride it that you hold on for dear life, and make sure your insurance policy is up to date.

Team Britten scored a number of wins, they hold land speed records and international track records as well, but what really put them on the map was placing 2nd and 3rd against all the factory machines in the 1991 Battle of the Twins in Daytona, Florida.
Britten only built a handful of his hand and home built bikes, 10 or so in the short while that he was alive, it's unfortunate for the motor heads out there that Britten died of a brief illness related to skin cancer at the age of 45. Who knows what the future of bike racing could have been.

As fate and luck had it this day, while waisting time waiting for our rental car in Christchurch I walked around the corner to the many local bike shops one by one looking at some vintage and classic bikes from side car racers to old cafe racers that they had on display and the selection of bikes was fantastic. The street had a good mix of hole in the wall bike shops and the big factory shops. I walked over to the Harley Davidson shop but it was closed for the day so I ended up next door to the Honda shop instead and you couldn't get luckier if you tried, I walked right into where one of only ten of the Britten bikes was on display and had just arrived from Auckland!
Here's a couple of pics of me with the legendary bike at Christchurch Honda.




















“If you’re a Buddhist you go to Tibet,
If you’re a Motor head you go to Bonneville”.











"The Ol' Speed Demon lived until he was dead" Gilles' original quote, feel free to use it!

Burt Munroe's story is much better known to the average Joe than John Britten's thanks to the movie "The World's Fastest Indian" starring Anthony Hopkins. If you haven't seen it you really should give it a look, the movie is more about his obsession, determination and quest to achieve something out of the ordinary then it is about a simple motorbike.

"All my life I've wanted to do something big... something bigger and better than all the other jokers"...Burt M

Burt was born in 1899 (died in 1978 of a heart condition) in Invercargill, NZ, the southern most part of the country, an ol' coot by any standard and there were more than one who thought he may be a little too old to be playing speed demon. But the likable character that he was he won people over easily on both sides of the pond and his spirit for living was indeed contagious making it extremely difficult not to rout for him. Burt bought his now legendary Indian Scout new in 1920, (1926 Scout shown above) manufactured that in Sprinfield Massachussets. He raced and modified it for close to 44 years, he also built a fiberglass aerodynamic body for it that made it look and ride like a missile.

At age 68, he risked everything, including his own life, taking the bike to Speed Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to break the world land speed record. He did so in 1967 posting a record breaking speed of 183.586mph that still stands to this day for a bike of its class. Burt went to Bonneville nine times in 11 years, running his V-twin 1920 Scout, and he would leave the bike there but take the engine back to New Zealand every year to work on it. He was unfunded and without team support .

It wasn't just the speed of his machine that captured the peoples imagination, but his ability to tinker around with his machine, building parts out of scrap metal, forging his own pistons, heads, cannibalizing old ford car parts to build cam rods, cutting the treads off tires to make them faster, you get the idea, the man could make something out of nothing, a real MacGyver. Burt's life may seem a little absurd and obsessive to some but I'd be pretty sure he didn't care, he was a man searching for something, hoping for something big to happen to him, to accomplish something great and even though he did, it may have been the journey he took to get there that he was actually looking for.

Burt, the colorful character that he was had many quotes attributed to him such as..
"You live life more in five minutes on the back of a motorbike than you can in an entire lifetime."
"It is better than being a cabbage watching television all the time. And having a nice couple of pretty ladies around can help a lot."

"Once you're dead, you're dead. You never come back. You're like a blade of grass and you just blow away. So you may as well enjoy it."

"If you don't follow your dreams, you might as well be a vegetable".

"If you don't go when you want to go, when you do go, you'll find you've gone".

Anthony Hopkins on Burt and the movie .

Burt Munroe- "At the Salt in 1967 we were going like a bomb. Then she got the wobbles just over half way through the run. To slow her down I sat up. The wind tore my goggles off and the blast forced my eyeballs back into my head - couldn't see a thing. We were so far off the black line that we missed a steel marker stake by inches. I put her down - a few scratches all round but nothing much else".

At the time Burt was traveling at close to 206 mph! Hopkins said about the role:
"I started laughing when I read the script for The World's Fastest Indian," he says. "I thought, this is no way for a 67-year-old man to behave!

"It's been the best film I've been in and Roger Donaldson is one of the best directors I've worked with. "I originally got the script and thought it was just terrific. It was just well written, very very well written, beautifully written, and so refreshing. It’s not the bang bang, of big Hollywood movies.

So as you can see read it is a must see movie with a little something for everyone and who's to argue with Hopkins about what is good and what is not..

Anyway once again I was lucky enough to stumble upon the Southland museum in Invercargill that was holding and exhibiting original "The World's Fastest Indian" movie props, motorcycles, car and trailer, they also had some of Burt's personal items, story boards and the full mock up of the tool shed Burt lived in. I snapped a couple of shots of it although technically wasn't supposed to. With help and information from the curator of the exhibition he lead me to "E Hayes and Sons" the local hardware store, the owner is one of Burt's old friends and sponsors that now has his bikes on permanent display for all to see...and it's free!

Kia Ora, New Zealand

Written by Lynn

I love this country....... I was here once before, in 2001, to visit my friend Alison. She was studying the weta (a endangered cricket the size of a mouse - feel free to correct my description, Alison) at a university on the South Island. My memories of New Zealand are filled with beautiful green landscapes, amazing animals and friendly people. Well, the second visit didn't disappoint.

We flew into Auckland totally exhausted from our marathon session of airport squatting in Tahiti. Our first stop was (hate to admit it), MacDonald's for breakfast. Here we met a retired American couple, ex-pats for the last 20 years. They couldn't rave enough about "their" country, and were full of suggestions of things for us to see and do. They even went so far as to offer to drive us back to Rotarura with them, a few hours west of Auckland. Sadly, given our limited time in New Zealand, we had already decided to spend most of it touring around the South Island, so had to decline their friendly offer.

For those of you who have never been to New Zealand, first off - shame on you! Secondly, it should be explained that New Zealand is divided into two main islands - North and South. The North Island is the most heavily populated, where over 70% of the estimated 4 million Kiwis live. The South Island has a much smaller population, but has most of the estimated 40 million sheep residing here. This number has dropped dramatically from the oft quoted 70 million sheep (or 20 sheep for every 1 Kiwi) that was true in the 1980's. Since then dairy has become a major industry and New Zealand has become the 5th largest dairy exporter in the world. As well, New Zealand has a thriving wine industry and forestry is becoming a more and more important contributer to the country's economy. But it's #1 industry, without a doubt, is tourism!

Almost 2 million tourists a year touch down in New Zealand. This number has increased dramatically since the release of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, filmed mainly on the South Island, produced by New Zealand's own, Peter Jackson. Since then millions of fans have visited to see the amazing landscapes made famous by these films. Rightly so, Mr. Jackson said no other country would be able to provide the awe inspiring vistas Tolkien had envisioned for Middle Earth.

After a few days in Auckland, spent mostly wandering the city and admiring the tall ships and sailboats docked at the habour, we flew down to Christchurch. In a fine example of our advance planning abilities we had not booked a hostel or as of yet rented a car. Unbeknownst to us, we had landed in New Zealand at the tail end of high tourist season. This meant that cars and camper vans, if you could find them, would be three times as expensive as other times of the year. But there really is no other way to tour the South Island. While there are several bus companies that can take you to the major cities and tourist destinations, part of the charm of this island is how "accessible" the remote and isolated areas, such as beaches, mountains and treks, are. If you have a car that is. So after a few days of concerted effort we managed to find a beat up old Subaru Legacy wagon to rent. We raided the local Salvation Army for camping gear and cooking stuff, rounding out our trove of treasures with a camping table/chair set from Christchurch's local pawn shop.

While waiting for our car we explored the charming city of Christchurch, set on the Avon river and modelled after a historical English city. There is a large (30 hectare) botanical garden filled with exotic and native trees and plants. In it there are some impressively enormous trees, many of them over 100 years old. The main square has a trolley station that can ferry you around the city and a nice craft market and the town's museum has some impressive displays on Antarctic expeditions. Though not my cup of tea, we did spend the weekend in Christchurch during their annual flower and garden show, which meant the whole city was decorated with beautiful floral arrangements.

While here we also (to my extreme excitement - yeah, right) by sheer chance got to see one of John Britton's bikes (in reality it's a racing motorcycle, I just like this picture). I actually have to admit that I had no idea what this means when I say how lucky we were to see it. As a result I will have to leave the motorcycle enthusiasts in anticipation for Gilles' later post.

Once we gathered up the car and all of our acquired camping gear we set off on a 10 day exploration of the South Island. We started by crossing the Southern Alps through Arthur's Pass. The Southern Alps run down 2/3 of the island, close to the west coast. Once over the amazingly twisted and scenic pass we were on the west coast. We turned south and started to make our way towards the tip of the island. Hugging the coastal road, which dipped in and out of the surrounding forests, we were treated to many visual treats. The weather was perfect for us, barely raining at all (a minor miracle for New Zealand where areas on the island have an annual rainfall of 6 metres!!). Our first stop was to enjoy the beaches around an area called Knight's Point just north of a town called Haast. Here the you can look down onto white sand beaches from towering cliffs and catch the occasional call of the sea lions. We camped beside a lovely stream in a wooded area that was INFESTED with mosquitoes and sand flies (which I would compare to rabid black flies), driving us into our tent by 8pm that night.

A short aside here to say that camping in New Zealand is fantastic. Not only is the country non-stop natural wonders, camping involves just pulling off on a track leading down to a beach and setting up your tent. If you have a camper trailer you can just park where ever it suits your fancy, though you do have to be careful not to get stuck. We helped push out one camper that got a little to far onto the sand one night. Our Canadian winter background came in handy as no one else really understood the value of "rocking" a stuck vehicle.

The next day we continued on with our journey, making the requisite stops at the Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers. These glaciers are the world's most accesible, and are presently in the process of retreating at a blistering rate of of 70cm/day since 1984 (about 10 times faster than a typical glacier). Glaciers in general are in a constant cycle of advancing and retreating, a pattern driven by the differences between the volume of meltwater at the terminal face, and the snowfall at the "neve". The two glaciers here are over 13,000 years old and together make up the heart of the Westland National Park.

The next day we headed out to Te Anu, our jumping off point for Milford Sound. The sound is more appropriately labelled a fjord and is one of New Zealand's most famous tourist destinations. It sits on the south west coast at the end of a long road through the Fjordland National Park. Here there are several wonderful treks and you can visit with many gregarious KEAS, the world's only mountain parrots. These birds are well known for their extreme curiosity and intelligence, which has been compared to that of a monkey. They are a bane to the unsuspecting car owner who can return from an hour trek only to find a gang of keas has removed all the accessible rubber from their vehicle's windshield wipers and windows. Due to their extreme adaptability and varocious appetite, the Kea has been persecuted in the past for their supposed attack on sheep. While it is true that during the harsh winter months, when food is scarce, keas will turn into scavengers and rip open carcasses with their sharp beaks to get at meat, it has never been proven that a kea has attacked a live sheep. They are well known, however, for eating the hatchling mutton birds that hide in small nests along the coast while thier mothers are off fishing for them. They are seemingly completely fearless and will approach you as soon as you exit your car, looking for a handout.

Once you get to Milford Sound you can take a tour on one of the many available tourists boats to get a first hand view of the towering cliff faces which loom over 1200m above the water. Milford Sound has the dubious reputation as one of the wettest places on earth, receiving over 6m of rainfall annually. We were lucky and got there on an overcast day, but had no rain. This does take away a bit from the many waterfalls in the area, but made for nicer boat ride. Unfortunately, the marine life was a little scarce when we were there and we were unable to see any dolphins or whales. We did catch sight of several fur seals sun bathing themselves in the welcome heat of the day though. And what we did see was an amazing landscape of dominating rock faces that loomed over our tiny boat. Thumbs up to Mother Nature for being able to continuously amaze me.

After another night in Te Anu, we headed off for Queenstown. This is New Zealand's self proclaimed adventure capital of the world, and here you can do just about any crazy outdoor activity you can think of. From bungee jumping, to zorbing, to white water rafting, to helikayaking, it's all available here for a price. Sadly, the price is pretty high, though that doesn't seem to be affecting their business as the town is over run with adrenalin junkies. What we came to see (aside from the fact that it was right on our way) was the mountain that was used as Mount Mordor in the Lord of the Rings. Not quite as impressive or scary as in the film, and no orcs to be seen..................

From here we headed down to Invercargill. For those of you not in the know, it is one of New Zealand's most southerly cities and was the home of Burt Munro, the man made famous by the movie, "The World's Fastest Indian" (played by Sir Anthony Hopkins). We made our way to the local museum where there was an exhibit on Burt and the making of the movie, which was done mainly here in his home town. Gilles paid the extra money to go in and see this exhibit (and will tell those interested all about it in the next post), while I hung out and talked to the curator of the tautara display.

Tautaras are reptiles that are the only surviving relative of dinosaurs that roamed the earth over 225million years ago, and not much has changed for them in this time. They are only found in New Zealand and are the slowest growing reptiles alive today. One of the males at the museum was over 120 years old and weighed about 1kg. The female tautaras will only lay eggs once every 2-5 years, this slow rate of reproduction making them vunerable in the wild. Fortunately they are fairly easily bred in captivity and this museum has managed to have quite a success rate over the years in hatching the babies in a controlled environment. If you're interested, you can read more about them at www.southlandmuseum.com.

I did get to see the original Indian motorcycle that Burt Munro raced, as well as the ones used in the movie, as they were on display at the local hardware store, rather than at the museum, the owner of the store having been a good friend of Mr. Munro.

After Invercargill we made our way to my favourite stop of the tour, Porpoise Bay. Here, on the very southern tip of the south island, I went for a swim with a girl from Austria. Now, rightly so, you should think I'm crazy, because that water is COLD (as in can't-feel-your-toes-after-5-minutes cold). But it was worth it, because if you're really lucky (and we were) a group of dusky dolphins will come on in to see what the foolish swimming humans are up to and play in the waves with you. This was probably one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and though the pictures don't really show you very well (shame on my photographer!), the pod of dolphins came within a metre of us, and I probably could have touched them, had I wanted to. Amazingly, it was totally free (the Kiwi's have perfected the art of providing a tour/entrance fee for everything from sheep shearing to beach combing), though I would have happily paid for the experience. Since there were only the 2 of us in the water, we also were the centre of attention for our new friends, and managed to stay out there with them for almost a half hour, before the cold drove us in.

After this our next stops included the lighthouse at Nugget Point, which is very popular and probably where we saw the most tourist congregated in one place since we had left Queenstown. About 400 metres below the trail, at the bottom of a 90 degree rock face, you can just barely catch a glimpse of sea lions frolicking among the waves. Not completely satisfied with this long distance encounter, we made our way to the practically deserted Cannibal Bay where you actually have to carefully pick you way around the sea lions as they bask on the sand. We apparently weren't very interesting, as you can see from the pics of the yawning beasts (I'll try to crop one to include a close up of the greyish slime stuck between their teeth - yum!)

From here it was on to Dunedin on the Otago Penisula. The best thing about this area is the wildlife, and you can spend days exploring the many sandy beaches looking for encounters with sea lions, elephant seals and penguins. Here you have a unique chance to catch a glimpse of the yellow eyed penguin, the world's rarest penguin, whose population has been decimated by the increasing numbers of introduced dogs, feral cats and rats on New Zealand, along with habitat reduction. While very graceful in the water, these guys are VERY clumsy on land. But there's nothing quite like the site of a penguin rolling up onto the shore in a wave, then staggering to its feet and waddling up the cliff to a safe resting spot. While there is a rehabilitation area that you can tour at dusk (the best time to view penguins as they come in from the sea for the night) we elected to return to a beach that I had seen with Alison and Brian 5 years ago. Here, at Sandfly Bay, you have to descend down an enormous sand dune to get the the protected beach. You then hide behind a constructed blind and wait quietly for the feathered friends to head to shore. While a bit more difficult to get to, it was much less busy than the rehab centre and (best of all) free!

After a few nights in Dunedin, my favourite city on the South Island, we headed back towards Christchurch. Given that we had the time, we decided to visit Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest peak that peaks at 3754 metres. We weren't expecting much, being pretty cocky about having topped over 4200 metres in South America, but were pleasantly surprised by the impressiveness of the landscape. It's pretty much summed up in the following quote.......
“I am not sure that Mount Cook is not the finest in outline of all the snowy mountains I have ever seen. No one can mistake it. If a person says he thinks he has seen it, you may be quite sure that he has not seen it. The moment it comes into sight the exclamation is ‘that is Mount Cook’, not ‘that must be Mount Cook’. There is no possibility of mistake.”
Samuel Butler

This is definitely not a mountain to be taken lightly. When we first got there we hiked up to the Alpine Monument, which has plaques for the various mountaineers that have died scaling the peaks of Mount Cook. The most recent was in 2003, and a plaque from the 1960's list a climber from Calgary, Alberta.

After a night spent camping at the base of Mount Cook we took the morning to do the more mundane and very safe Sealy Tasman Track that takes you up to a look out point over the Southern Alps and lakes in the Mount Cook National Park. Turns out all the driving around in a car has seriously impacted my fitness levels and the 4 hour hike that went straight up, then right back down caused some significant leg pains for the next several days!! But the view was worth it and I'm happy to say that the detour to Mount Cook was well rewarded.

With only a day left before we flew out from Christchurch we decided our last stop would be to go to the town of Kaikoura. This small village turned tourist destination is becoming increasingly well known as a place go on whale watching tours, mainly to see sperm whales. They also offer whale spotting flights, chances to swim with dolphins and/or seals and several hikes. We hooked up with a couple of Canadians from Montreal, Alex and Alex, who were touring the South Island as well. They were members of the infamous Cirque de Soliel that had just finished a show in Auckland, and were on the way to Canberra. The 4 of us decided against the whale touring, partially because we were not convinced that we liked the idea of approaching whales in boats.

Whale watching as a tourist activity has increased dramatically in recent years (apparently the numbers world wide rose from 2 million people in 1990 to 9 million by 1999 and has continued to increase in popularity since then), and some tour operators are less scrupulous than others about how they monitor the interaction with the whales. Most whales only approach land during important stages of their life cycles, such as breeding, calving and nursing. Many rich feeding grounds also are close to land. The concern is that an over enthusiastic tourist industry will negatively affect these animals and drive them back out to sea. Regulations of the industry are patchwork and not enforced, so it is pretty dependant upon the company what your experience will be. On the up side, cetacean touring provides an economically viable alternative to hunting, a practice I have no qualms about voicing my opinions against. Questioning the tourist office in Kaikoura, it seems that they are well aware of potential problems and work hard to provide an eco-friendly encounter with these amazing beasts, and are very selective about which companies they will actually recommend and book tours with, which was nice to see. Still, a combination of expense, concerns over the practice, and timelines, prevented us from going out on a boat. Instead we toured some seal colonies, had some fish and chips from a landmark restaurant and wandered around this charming seaside town.

The next day it was back to Christchurch to catch our plane out of New Zealand and onto Australia. Overall it was once again an amazing experience here, and one I hope to repeat over and over again in my life. I don't think I can emphasize enough how great a country New Zealand is to visit. Very friendly people, beautiful landscapes, cool animals to see everywhere you turn...........if you haven't been, start planning your trip as soon as possible, I may even meet you there!

Easter Island!!! (oh, and Tahiti)

Written by Lynn

For probably the first time the title of this blog is truly apt - we are a thousand miles from nowhere. Welcome to Easter Island, the most isolated piece of land on earth. Standing in the centre of its largest (and only) town, Hanga Roa, you are 3700km to Chile, the nearest populated land mass, and 3800km to Tahiti. The island itself is takes up a mere 64 square miles amongst the huge South Pacific ocean. The land here is rolling and covered with waving grasses, inhabited by herds of feral horses and is floating on an ocean that is so dazzlingly, eye watering blue that you can't believe it's real.

Easter Island was "discovered" by a Dutch explorer on Easter Sunday, 1722. Until the arrival of Europeans to the island, the people of Rapa Nui (dubbed so by Tahitian sailors) had believed that they were the sole surviving humans on earth. They had landed on Easter Island (or "Te Pito O Te Kainga" - ie. navel of the world - as the natives had referred to it) sometime between 400 and 800 A.D. Where they came from still remains a bit of a mystery. It is a commonly held theory that they come from Polynesian islands in two waves. One brought the HANAU MOMOKO and the next the HANAU E'EPE, erroneously referred to as the "short-" and "long-ears" due to a misinterpretation of the word E'EPE to mean ears (EPE is the actual term for ears). Much of the art and culture of the island reveals a distinct Polynesian influence, though over the centuries it became highly evolved and unique to Rapa Nui.

The most amazing and recognizable aspect of Easter Island are the massive MOAI, or statues, that dominate the landscape. These megolithic peices of art stand anywhere from 1 metre to 10 metres tall, all of them placed on the edge of the ocean facing inland. The largest statue remains unfinished in the quarry and measures at over 21 metres and would have likely weighed 160 tonnes upon completion. Some moai even have large red coral "hats" placed atop of them.

The question that continues to baffle archeologists and laymen alike is "How?" How did the Rapa Nui people move these massive statues, some up to 25km, over rolling hills? Other cultures have created and moved large stone icons, but nothing on the scale of what is seen here. And the lack of trees that would normally have been used to transport such statues also creates a puzzle. As you stand next to a MOAI and gaze up at it, you can not begin to imagine the amount of focused community willpower it must have required to complete and move.

An equally puzzling question is "Why?". Certainly the Rapa Nui people are not the only culture to develop an extravagant and time consuming way of expressing their devotion to the gods and their ancestors (think of the pyramids of Egypt, or even the stone temples of the Incas). But usually these high cultures are developed under favourable conditions, where the excess of natural resources mean that minimal work is required to feed and cloth the people, leaving the time to develop creatively. Here on Easter island it seems to be exactly the opposite. In all direction is nothing but dry, scrubby grasslands, relatively flat other than three inactive volcanoes that dot the landscape.

It is told by the Rapa Nui that the original settler of the island was the king, ARIKI HOTU MATU'A, whose grandfather had dreamed of a land to send the people to in a time of great need. When their country, HIVA, began to sink, Hotu Matu'a went forth and found the island his ancestor had foretold. The original settlers brought to their new land several useful plant species, such as the banana, tubers, sugar cane and pineapple. They also brought in chickens (known as MOA), that became their staple source of protein, and were therefore carefully guarded. Prior to this it is believed that there were very few edible plants on the island, and minimal to no land fauna. The lack of reef surrounding the island meant that the natives could not easily access the ocean without sea going vessels (requiring trees to build), though some species of fish such as tuna could be caught from shore.

Recent core samples show fossilized pollen proving that at one time there was a forest of palm trees, many of them now extinct, that would have once grown on the island. This at least partially answers some of our "how" questions. But it seems that the massive numbers of trees that would have been required to assist in the movement of the Moai caused the Rapa Nui, in their obsession, to eventually denude the landscape.

The limited natural resources, combined with a burgeoning population (estimates place the peak numbers at about 9,000 people, though the numbers had declined to about 6,000 by the time Europeans discovered the island) created many warring factions. This is likely at least somewhat responsible for the second great mystery of Easter Island. You see, several decades before Europeans arrived at Rapa Nui, work on the Moai just suddenly stopped. Today when you visit the quarry at RANO RARAKU you can see half finished statues, ones that were just beginning to be sketched out and completely carved moai that they had begun to move, but were abandoned and allowed to sink in to the earth. In total 397 statues remain here. The have been 883 Moai identified on Easter Island, 288 which had made it to their final destination and were mounted on AHU, large stone altars, and had their eyes carved open and defined with ellipses of carved coral and obdisan. It was believed that until this was done the statue was just stone. Once "awakened", MANA would infuse the Moai in the form of a spirit of the ancestors to watch over the villages. All of these Moai were toppled and had their coral eyes removed. And no one knows why.........

Certainly the Rapa Nui people were an advanced enough culture that they had developed a written language, called RONGO RONGO, which likely documents at least some of the history of the island. Sadly a combination of disease brought by the Europeans, inter clan warring and slave trading had reduced the population of Easter Island to around 100 people by the end of the 1800's. Unfortunately, no wise men survived and rongo rongo is now a dead language. As well, the introduction of christianity to the island meant that many of the rongo rongo tablets were destroyed at the behest of priests. Many attempts have been made to translate carved tablets that have been found, but have been for the most part unsuccessful. Without the benefit of a verifiable historical account, only theories can be raised as to what happened.

One commonly held theory is that there was a upheaval in between the ruling and conscripted working classes, resulting in an overthrowing of the people ordering the construction of the Moai. Another possibility could be several consecutive years of environmental stress, such as drought. It is estimated that even as little as 5 years of poor crops would have forced the population of such a resource limited society to the brink of collapse and created a crisis that would have precipitated such a sudden turn in religious practices.

All that is known for sure is that the Rapa Nui suddenly stopped creating Moai and instead began to revere the birdman, MAKEMAKE. Much of the worship of the birdman centred around the religious sanctuary of ORONGO, situated high up on the edges of the volcano RANO KUA. Every year a competition would be held where the chosen men of each tribe would have to descend from Orongo down to the sea and swim out to one of three islands through shark infested water. Once there, the young men would have to collect a MANUTARA, one of the first eggs of the year laid by a sooty tern. This egg would have to be brought back, unbroken, and placed in the hand of the competitor's clan leader. The first to recieve an egg then became the ruler of the island, called the TANGATA MANU, until the following year. All over Orongo are stone petroglyphs of the birdman, and several can be found on other areas of the island. This culture was still alive even into the 1800's, and it appeared that the population of the island itself was recovering from what ever massive upheaval had caused their reversal in religion.

Cannibalism was also practiced on Easter Island, many people having the dubious claim of having ancestors who were KAI TANGATA (man eaters). It is also true that cannibalism was not practiced for religious or ceremonial purposes, but rather just because of a simple liking of human flesh as there was no other large land mammals available at the time. The ultimate insult for someone would be to say "your flesh between my teeth" and in ancient times was enough to incite full scale clan wars.

These days, of course, Easter Island is a peaceful oasis, where you can sit before the re-erected Moai for hours on end contemplating the enormity of the task the Rapa Nui had accomplished. The people here are incredibly friendly and are truly happy that you've chosen to visit their home. There is also opportunity to go out and wander on ocean side cliffs, amongst the generally uninhabited fields filled with cow and horse herds, some branded to show ownership, others feral, but unafraid of people. There is the two beaches and various popular surfing spots to go to, and scooters and cars can be rented to motor out to the various historical moai sites.

When you first get to the Easter Island airport the first thing you realize is just how small the island really is. Presently there is only about 3800 permenant residents, though it is visited by almost 40,000 tourists a year. These numbers have multiplied rapidly since the first commercial flight actually landed on the island in the 1950's (using a dirt runway the islanders built themselves). These days Easter Island is a common stop over for people coming from Santiago or Tahiti. Several cruise ships will make one day stops, ferrying the passengers around to the more important archeological sites before they load them back up on the ships and take off. Many group tours fly in and fly out again within 24 hours, staying at the large, Chilean owned hotels. My recommendation - wait until you get to the airport and find a family to stay with. Everyone there knows everyone else and can direct you to a place to bed down. We stayed at "Chez Oscar" and everywhere we went, when asked where we were staying for the purposes of scooter rentals or just out of curiosity, people automatically knew who Oscar was (of course he was a bit of a flamboyant character, but still, it was great to see how close knit the communty is). We also, just by chance, landed on Easter Island the day before their biggest festival of the year, Tapati Rapa Nui, began. This festival, celebrated since 1975, is used to help maintain and highlight many of the traditional dances, sports and cultural skills of the Rapa Nui. It draws in a large number of tourists and is held annually during the first 2 weeks of February. During the next 17 days there would be daily shows of dancing, singing, wood- and stone-carving, and various sporting events. The sporting events would include everything from regattas to a traditional triathalon (involving swimming, paddling on a homemade reed float and running around a lake carrying a pole with banana bunches balanced on either end). There is also spear and fishing competitions, and the making of MAHUTE (barkcloth). One of the most amazing and unusual sights is the HAKA PEI - a race involving men dressed in HAMI (loincloths) and body paint sliding down the side of a volcano on the trunks of banana trees. During this suicidal run the competitors can reach speeds of up to 60km/hr, and the one who flies the farthest is declared the winner. All of these events are used to collect points for various clans. Each clan has a beauty queen contestant, and the one with the most points at the end of the two weeks is declared the winner. The entire festival is then closed with a massive carnivale style parade.

We were lucky enough to see song, dance, carving, regattas and the not to be missed Haka Pei. Were it at all possible we would have stayed to see the carnivale. We were also unfortunate enough to see the local accordian competition, but, hey, they can't all be winners. I think one of the most amazing aspects of this competition was the fact that the talent pool was drawn from such a small population and, for the most part, was excellent. If you're planning on visiting Easter Island, I would highly recommend coming in February so you can catch at least part of this festival, and I usually avoid tourist high season like the plague whenever possible!

During the day, between performances, we rented a scooter to motor around the island and see the various highlights. These sites included not only the ones previously mentione, but also
PLAYA DE ANAKENA - the red coral beach, site of AHU ATUNE HUKI, some of the first Moai re-erected in 1955 by an American anthropologist, William Mulloy, who dedicated his life to reviving the dead culture of the Moai
AHU TE PITO KURA - the largest of the complete Moai, never re-erected

AHU TONGARIKI - 15 Moai stand here, re-erected in 1992 by a Japanese crane company. These ones were particularly hard to stand upright as the toppled statues had been shoved inland by a tidal wave in 1960.

TAHAI COMPLEX - one of the closest to the city, showing the different stages of developement in the facial features of the Moai

RANO KAU - a volcanic crater on the edges of the sacred village of Oronga


We also took one day to take a "bitty" trek around the south point of the island, recommended by our host, Oscar. Too bad for us we got a bit lost and ended up wandering for about 5 hours in the wide open fields, in the hot sun, with not near enough water to drink. Luckily for us, it is impossible to get completely lost on this island as it is so small. While on our little walk we did see many horses, cows, beautiful ocean vistas and several partially or completely decayed livestock corpses. Curious, I asked a few locals what the deal was. Turns out, in a fine example of human interference with a pristine environment, the problem lies with a noxious plant, called Cho-Cho, introduced onto the island.

In 1982 the plant, Crotalaria grahamiana (cho-cho), was introduced onto the island to help prevent erosion. A few years later a large number of cattle and horses began to die from a wasting disease that progressed rapidly into a stumbling, neurological deficiency and then onto death. Due to a lack of veterinary care on the island, it was assumed the animals were undergoing an epidemic of mad cow disease, and farmers were resigned to losing much of their livelihood. In 1998 it was discovered that the actual culprit was the cho-cho plant, which contained a natural source of pyrrolizidine alkaloids. These alkaloids were hepatotoxic (killed off liver cells) and potent carcinogens (caused cancer). Most of the livestock were dying of cirrhosis (liver failure), the neurological symptoms related to a consequence of this called hepatic encephalopathy (brain dysfunction caused by the build up of toxins in the blood). Unfortunately, by the time this was realized, cho-cho was a widespread invader of the island. Measures taken since then to limit the exposure of livestock to the plant have reduced fatalities, but not completely eliminated them. There also remains come concern about whether or not human consumption of animal products (such as meat and unpasturized milk) on the island will result in an increase of liver cancer, though not enough study has been done to support this theory.

Back on happier topics I can say that I completely enjoyed our stay on Easter Island. Never have I had such an amazing 5 days, filled to the brim with amazing history, beautiful scenery, awe inspiring sights and a festival that was completely fascinating. It was sad to leave Easter Island, but the time had come to pack up and move on to Tahiti.

Now most people were a bit jealous when they heard we were going to Tahiti, and I'm sure that for some the experience is amazing. For us, not so much. First off, Tahiti is one of the most expensive tourist destinations on earth. The "cheap" rooms on the main island cost around $150 a night. We landed on the island at 11pm, and were through customs by midnight. Given that we were planning on catching the 6AM ferry to another island, called Moor'ea, we decided it would be easier to just sleep in the airport. So with about 15 of our fellow backpackers we pulled up a peice of marble flooring (sadly no soft carpeting or sleepable chairs) and got what sleep we could. The next day we were off by bus to the ferry.

The town of Papeete, the capital of Tahiti island, is a bustling, overcrowded and dirty place, surprisingly. Many people go to Moor'ea, first off because it is cheaper, secondly because it is more untouched with pristine natural beauty. One of the nice things about Moor'ea is that about 200m off shore, encircling the entire island is a reef. Within this protective circle the water is calm and only about 4 feet deep in most places. Abundant coral grows here and a variety of tropical fishes abound. Just off the shore of our hotel we went snorkelling and saw many vibrant and colourful coral and fish. Unfortunately, visibility was not that great as it was rainy season, which brings me to the second problem we had with Tahiti - it rained, and I mean poured, for about 48 hours straight during the 3 days while we were there. Confined to our the porch of our little cabin for the most part we just chilled out and made quick trips to the grocery store between down pours. We couldn't afford to eat out (meals at restaurants costing anywhere from $25-50 a person), and many of the activities were not only overpriced, but would not have been particularly enjoyable in the wet (eg. dolphin watching, touring Cook's harbour, scooter rentals). So we hung out with the hotel's cat, read a lot, caught up on some sleep. Two days later it was back onto the ferry to Papeete. We had to take an early afternoon boat to make sure we got back on time (ferries stop running at 4pm), but our flight didn't leave until 3AM the following morning. Faced with another typhoon like downpour, and burdened down with our full backpacks and empty wallets, we decided to pass the hours at the airport - all 14 of them................

Conclusion - Tahiti would be great if you had enough money to afford one of the fancy resorts, but all in all we wish we had just spent the extra days at Easter Island enjoying more of the Tapati festival. The one thing that I am very sorry I missed was the Tahiti Marathon, which ran just 2 days after we left on Moor'ea. Not, of course that I would have run it (are you crazy!), but it would have been great to see. Nice flat course, beautiful scenery. Pretty hot, but it starts at 4:30AM, which would help with that (though would be a major deterrent to spectators). Oh well, maybe next year.

Stella

Written by Gilles

Cruel twist of fate--Stella

Who knows why our paths crossed that day, surely the gods knew that Lynn and myself were not the kind that would just keep on walking by and do nothing to help this poor animal, or maybe that was his "plan" after all.

As we were walking towards the Mendoza Zoo I spotted a dog in the corner of my eye sitting awkwardly in a ditch of cold fast running water. You could tell something was wrong with her right away, she had the saddest little eyes and that "I don't know what to do now" look on her face...I had the same look on my face. Lucky Lynn was there and took a little better control of the situation while Stella and I sat with our stunned faces. Lynn checked for broken bones which apparently there wasn't any but Stella's breathing was laboured and a little worrisome. We wouldn't be sure about her condition until we got her to the Vet Clinic a block away from our apartment for X-rays. Stella's rear legs wouldn't support her and she yelped and stumbled as Lynn picked her up to put her in the cab. At this point I'm reminded why I'd never make it as a Vet (apart from the obvious--brains!) I don't have the internal fortitude that Lynn does to even watch this poor little pup suffer without wincing from the uncertainty of her fate. Perhaps my lack of animal medical knowledge explained my complete uselessness at that point.

We got Stella to the Vet Clinic where we met Juan Carlos, a Mexican born and trained Vet who is just the kind of person you'd want to meet in this situation. Helpful, kind, caring and most importantly working on the case of getting Stella adopted asap. Juan gave Stella a couple of pain shots to get her through the night but unfortunately his clinic didn't have an X-ray machine on site so we would have to wait till tomorrow until the mobile X-ray machine showed up. We still weren't really sure what we were going to do with Stella, we were hoping to take care of her at the apartment for a couple of days then send her to her new home. Juan did come through with someone to take her in a couple of days but we still didn't really know all there was to know about Stella's condition until we got her X-rayed.

At this point I guess you should know where the name Stella comes from, with all our running around and worrying at the time the money for her pain meds cost 40 pesos and for that money in Argentina we could have bought 20 beers!!! (originally it was Heineken but that proved to be to masculine so we called her Stella after the Belgium beer Stella Artois).

Obviously the money was better spent on her....



So we carried her home, built her a bed with a blanket and covered it with garbage bags since she still was a dirty slightly smelly street dog. Now she was in our intensive care 24 hours a day until we could deliver her to Juan Carlos who had indeed arranged an adoption for her but the adoptee could only take her on the weekend...no problem for us. We made her as comfy as possible, we feed her all sorts of good little treats, rice and sausages, leftovers and of course puppy food. She was really sore still but seemed to be getting better with each hour that passed, she'd whine a little bit and struggle to try to get up when she had to pee. We had to lift her up and support her around the yard for the first couple of days until she started to get up on her own. I slept downstairs with her for 4 nights with one eye open getting up when she need to go out or wanted some water and food, sometimes she'd sleep inside by the door and other nights I'd put her outside where she seemed more relaxed.

By day 3 she seemed to be getting much better, and I was at least thinking things would be all right for her. Her demeanor was good, she wagged her tail every time she'd see us and respond with a friendly look, we were petting her constantly and calling her by her name, she was going outside and enjoying the sun like any good hearted street dog would. She was even trying to flip over for a well deserved belly rub. She was eating and drinking well and even going to pee by herself standing up which I took to be a great sign of recovery.

We had to find another clinic to get X-rays since the mobile machine didn't show up at Juan's clinic, it wasn't too far but carrying little Stella around was hard on the arms after 10 blocks of walking. Finally in to get X-rays and they were pretty cheap about 90 pesos for 3 X-rays, however they didn't give Stella anything for the pain and laying her out on the table for the photos was a bit painful to watch as she was still really sore. Lynn started to think at this time that something more serious might be going on with Stella, her breathing was still laboured and she thought she probably had a diaphragmatic hernia, which I guess is common with animals that get hit by cars.

The X-rays proved Lynn's assessment to by right, she did indeed suffer from a tear in her diaphragm as well as a fractured pelvis. We were definitely caught in a dilemma and a bit off guard, she would need an operation and intensive care for a couple of weeks after and we were leaving in a couple of days. At first we had just decided although we didn't want to that the best thing to do since no one would be there to take care of her was to euthanize her. By this time our attachment to her was growing and the thought off having to put her down just because we couldn't sort things out due to lack of time to sort out all the details of her operation, post op care and adoption wasn't really acceptable to me but the reality was saying otherwise.

Unfortunately and fortunately for Stella, Argentina had just passed a new law that states you can only euthanize animals if there is an existing medical condition. We thought for sure that Stella would have qualified but the attending Vet didn't seem to think so! Surely Stella could not go on without medical intervention but apparently he had some ethical problems with putting her down. He did however give us a number for the society for protection of animals in town but we'd have to call and make the arrangements our self. We didn't get the warm and fuzzies from this clinic and hoped for a little bit more from them since we were doing everything we could as tourists for the little girl.

We carried Stella home once again and consulted with Juan about her medical problem and the remaining problem of what to do with her. At best, Mopra (animal protection) would take her, we'd pay for the surgery and they would have someone do post op care for her. At worst Juan Carlos had said he would not having a problem euthanizing Stella since she would be suffering and needed the operation to survive.(Juan's clinic didn't have the equipment for such a surgery but once again Juan was most helpful and patient with us and our poor Spanish).

We finally spoke to Mopra that night and had arrangements put together for Stella the next day all we needed was a price for the surgery from the Vet that we agreed to pay for and everything else would be taken care of, Thank God, finally!! By now it was Thursday night and we were leaving on Monday morning to go to Santiago, it couldn't have been any closer time wise.

After another night on the couch and being woken several times by Stella's whimpering and need for some attention, and food of course the morning came and my shift was over. Lynn came down from her lovely large air conditioned bedroom and comfortable bed I might add to relieve me of my dog duties and Stella went outside to enjoy another beautiful sunny day in Mendoza.

I went up to bed upstairs and what only seemed like minutes when Lynn came up to tell me that Stella had just died. I couldn't believe it and needed to see for myself but unfortunately it was true. Stella died outside in the hot sun, on the green grass, where she felt the most comfortable.

She lived a good last week with us, she got off the streets and knew what it was like to have a home, what being completely spoiled was like, to actually have a long overdue bath and to finally have people to care for her. It was a long week with her and we did the best we could, of course our attachment grew over the days as were our high hopes for her recovery and a positive outcome: it was cruel ending for out little story. We poured what we had into her and her recovery and she repaid us plenty with a wagging tale and a happier face then when we found her.

I still wish we could have saved her......