In keeping with my decision to write as the spirit moves me rather than in keeping with a theme, my topic today was a memory that came up elsewhere on social media. One advantage of what I did in the foreign service was that after I retired early at 55 I continued to work as a contract foreign service officer doing contracts ranging from 6 weeks to 3 months in various parts of the world but could turn down a contract or choose not to work between contracts i.e. work part time, do the fun part of my job that I enjoyed but have far less responsibility. It has been wonderful.

So, the memory that came up today was leaving 10 years ago for a 6 week contract in Santiago, Chile. While I did have to work Monday to Friday, I did have weekends off and, if there was a statutory holiday scheduled I might even have a long weekend, travel and see the country I was in. It happened that there was a long weekend while I was in Santiago and having got that far I saw no reason not to hop on a plane and head to Rapa Nui – also known as Easter Island – for a long weekend. I was also very lucky since flights are sometimes cancelled due to weather but mine, both going and returning, took off and arrived right on time. The experience began at the airport where the line up to check in was long … and consisted mostly of islanders returning home after shopping trips to Santiago and pushing huge carts containing almost every type of goods imaginable – including the kitchen sink – to be checked in as “excess baggage”. With my weekender suitcase I appeared to be a real anomaly. Eventually, all was dealt with and the plane took off!

Having rented a small room with access to kitchen facilities, I spent the first afternoon just walking around Hanga Roa, the main town and, in the evening, visiting the Ahu Tahai moai at the harbour while the sun set.

The next two days were in the company of a delightful New Zealander tour guide you had married an Easter Islander. The first day he took me on the South Coast Tour which included the Rango Raraku – quarry – as well as various sites where the final moai were placed on the shoreline.

The second day we headed out on the West Island Tour which took us to an early Islander village that overlooked two small outlying islands, the volcanic lake Rano Kau, and yet more moai.

I saw so much in three days and took so many pictures knowing that it was highly unlikely that I would ever get back to Rapa Nui. I wish I could go back but the experience is something to savour and I do. How the Polynesians found this island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is largely hidden by the mists of time but, having seen the coasline, they must have been very brave.