paradise in the polynesian triangle

i'm sat now in santiago, chile, colder than i expected....
the last few months have seen us sunning ourselves and swimming on all sorts of lovely beaches.
the last part of our journey in new zealand was beautiful, i guess as expected. we spent an amazing 6 days trekking on the queen charlotte track in marlborough sounds; one of the craziest tramps i've ever experienced. the track is serviced by water taxis which offer luggage delivery services for an extra $10. but being as we were camping, and are gluttens for punishment, we carried our own gear and stayed in the DOC camp areas. along the track there were several other options for accomodation, ranging from our luxury blue tent overlooking empty, golden sanded beaches, to the squalid but historic furneaux lodge (hope they don't read this blog, they might sue me... far from squalid) with all sorts in between... places to buy cappucino, sip on cider and watch the rugby. craziness. and as you might expect the track was busy. people of all sorts of ages and abilities walking. but we still managed to find some beautiful spots all to ourselves and the weka...(cheeky indigenous, flightless birds that nick off with your stuff when you're not looking, and even have a go when you are!)
so, a quick, easy hitch through the north island stopping briefly in wellington, hamilton and auckland and then on to tahiti.
tahiti was nothing like we expected. after 3 months in aotearoa, where we were greated everywhere with smiles and friendly faces we were more than a little suprised to find all these people living in a postcard paradise looking so miserable, despite the 'tahitian' welcome of singing, dancing and flowers. we didn't do much, sat on the beach, swam, tried hard not to sweat too much.
another wee hop across the pacific to the other edge of polynesia and we landed in rapa nui: isla de pascua, easter island. and here we were again, welcomed, but with genuine smiles. everyone there referred to nueva zelanda by its maori name aotearoa. the language of rapa nui (other than spanish) is incredibly similar to te reo maori and i was surprised by how many words used in conversation i could understand. crazy. on leaving the airport we met a chap named tuti who invited us to come and stay at his house. it was, in fact, his 2 nephews aged 7 and 8 who made one of the highlights of my stay there. not long after we arrived we were invited on a fishing trip and it was while we were being burnt to a crisp on the back of a ute, bouncing along the coastal roads that we discovered that the weather was proper scorchio and so our plans of walking around the mostly deforested island where there were few sources of water were immediately cancelled. we did manage one overnight camping expedition though to the site of some fallen moai. it was one of the most beautiful evenings i've ever had: the full moon lighting the stones made the whole landscape somewhat surreal.
another quick leap back in time (travelling backwards, totally crazy) deposited us into the funk and grime of santiago.
hooked up on the net, pascal has put a few photos on for you to enjoy, and here's a collage i've made of us, a few of the moai and a beautiful sunset we enjoyed and some piccies taken along the queen charlotte track in lovely te wai pounamu: south island , new zealand.
xxxxb