Around the world in pictures ....

Easter Island - or Rapa Nui as the locals call their island - is well known for its moai , the great carved stone statues staring stonily across the island’s barren hills. The islanders used stone tools to carve a statue out of volcanic tuff. The statues were secured by bark rope attached to tree trunk capstans at the top of the ‘moai factory’. Then they were lowered down the slope into pits where, upstanding right, they were carved in the familiar shape. From there they were transported over the island to their final resting places. Each statue was carved to represent a specific deified ancestor - moai means “for the progeny” or “for the descendants” - that’s why there are no two statues alike. There are almost 900 moai recorded on Rapa Nui; almost 400 still in the quarry, between 164 and 288 on an ahu (a raised rectangular platform used as a place of worship) and 200 remain on the spot were they fell or were left during transport. The average moai weighs 12,5 tons and stands 4 metres high. The largest site on Rapa Nui with standing moai is Ahu Tongariki. It has fifteen stone statues lined up and also the largest moai ever erected on the island with a weight of more than 86 tons. One of them is wearing a so called pukao , topknots or hats. They were carved out of a relatively soft red volcanic stone and number around a hundred. The fifteen moai were toppled in the 17th century, as were all other of these statues on the island, during a tribal war. An earthquake off the coast of Chile in 1960 produced a tsunami that tossed the moai of Ahu Tongariki - some weighing up to 30 tons - more than 600 metres inland. In October 1992 an agreement was signed between the Government of Chile and the Moai Restoration Committee of Japan to restore Ahu Tongariki, which as finally completed in 1996.

Painted picket fence with Maori design/art at the entrance to the Government Gardens. (Picture was taken with a Rollei Prego 90 > scan.)

Rano Raraku is a site on the slope of a volcano (PiP1 and 2), which was the statue ‘factory’ of Easter Island. It was the birthplace of a Neolithic culture’s progency. This is the quarry, where the moai (monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people) were carved in the volcanic rock and transported over the island. There are still about 400 statues in various states of completion (PiP 3,4 and 5): from rectangular blocks barely discernable in the rock face to mostly completed moai , held in the matrix of the rock by a mere keel, to completed moai standing largely buried on the slope. Among them the unique kneeling moai Tukuturi (PiP6) with a shape and design different from all other moai and Te Tokanga or Ko Teto Kena, the largest moai ever carved with a height of 20 meters and weight of (estimated) 270 tons (PiP7). More pictures of Easter Island: www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/43947814 and www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/45938804

Icebergs in Grey Lake, calved from the Grey Glacier in Torres del Paine National Park, Made this picture in a freezing storm; it was so COLD there.

New Norcia was founded in 1847 by Spanish Benedictine monks. Originally established as an Aboriginal Mission, the monks built a village comprising a church, flour mills, schools, hostel, apiary, blacksmiths shop, olive shed and olive groves surrounding the monastery. The settlement had/has many purposes; a mission, a monastery and a provider of education. The monastery - where the monks live, work and pray - is the heart of New Norcia. Beside the religious buildings New Norcia offers a museum and art gallery, which shows an array of artefacts that trace New Norcia’s time as an Aboriginal mission, a centre of extensive farming and as a place of education and culture. Nowadays the town is an important cultural heritage site. Twenty seven of its buildings are classified by the National Trust and the town as a whole is registered on the National Estate. It continues to be home to a community of Benedictine monks, who own and operate this unique settlement.