We had lunch on the side of the road cafe. After lunch we walked to Tahai Moai complex and Ahu Ko Te Riku . We picked up a dog along the way that followed us around everywhere being our "guide dog". We also visited the museum, which was very interesting. In the evening we had a few beers/shandies watching the sun set over the water.25th We headed off on the Te Ara O Te Ao trail to Orongo that took us to Rano Kau, the big volcano. Our first stop was the standing Moai at boat harbour called Hanga Piko.
We then walked to a cave to view rock paintings and then to Manavai exhibition gardens, to see how they used to grow their plants inside rock circles.
We passed through grass lands and eucalypt forest with good views back to Hanga Roa and up to the creater of the volcano.
From the volcano it was a short walk to Orongo where we paid our $10USD to walk around the ancient birdman site. There was a complex of 54 restored stone houses in the ceremonial village 
and also petroglyphs which were carved into the rocks during the ceremonies. We ate lunch at a restaurant on the way back at around 4pm, stopped by the supermarket to buy some water and headed back to our room for the evening.26th It was windy and raining all night but when we finally woke in the morning it was just howling wind. We decided to hire a car for 24 hours to see the other Moai around the island. The first sight of the day was Ahu Vinapu, being the site of 3 Ahu(platforms), near the airport runway. One of the Ahu has perfectly laid stone like in Cusco and Machu Pichu.
It started to rain heavily, with gale force winds as we visited the ruins of Hanga Hahave, Hanga Poukura and Hanga Te'e.
We got absolutely drenched through our "water proof ponchos", but we were not fazed and still managed to take a few photos. We then drove to Rano Raraku, the stone quarry where all the Moai were carved. We were amazed to see how many were cut from the side of the hill,
there was even a 20m one joined to the volcanic substrate. We also saw a kneeling Moai called Tukuturi.
The weather started to clear again and we could see Ahu Tongariki in the distance, being 15 reconstructed Moai, ranging from 5.6m to 8.7m high. We drove to Tongariki and took a few photos 
and a videoand also found some petroglyphs on the ground thanks to a French tour guide, who we followed around after that. We then went to the largest statue placed on a platform, 10m high, 85 ton Moai Paro. Here we touched the navel of the world that was brought to the island by Hotu Matu'a (the King who colonised the island). We next saw the 5 restored Moai Nau Nau at the white sandy beach. These all have pukao (top knots) and are decorated with petroglyphs on their backs. In the late afternoon we drove back through the middle of the island to Puna Pau, a secondary creater used as a quary for the top knots, then on to Ahu Akiui where we saw 7 moai that were restored in 1960.
From there it was on to the underground garden 
and back along the coast where it started to pour down with rain again. We were dry at the time, but had one more photo to take of Kote Pu Hake Niai Mako'i. We got absolutely saturated again and had to head back to the hotel to change.
We went out to dinner and also took a night shot of Hango Piko, who was lit up.
A huge day considering the weather. We had a great day.27th Had set the alarm to see sunrise over Tongariki but woke to howling wind and torrential rain, so went back to sleep until 8am. We had breakfast and returned the car and update the blog. The weather cleared and we were able to go for another walk to see the inland Ahu Huri A Urenga, an important astronomical marker with 11 spots related to the solstices and equinoxes. The Moai there has 4 hands.
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