In this section you will find e-mails that I sent to friends while on my first trip to Rapa Nui (Aug 2000-Feb 2001).  They were intended just to share what I was experiencing, but somehow came to mean so much more to me as well as to those who received them.  Those e-mails, as well as the messages from my following trips, are the foundation of this website and, in many ways, the foundation of who I am today.  Some of these stories are fun to read, and some of them provide insight into the lifestyle of Rapa Nui.  I hope you'll enjoy them! 

Each section contains a Table of Contents that links to individual entries. 

Rapa Nui e-mails, August 2000 thru April 2001

By far the longest document, but contains a wealth of information about life on the island.

Rapa Nui e-mails and Travel Journal entries, January 2003 thru March 2003

Rapa Nui e-mails & Travel Journal entries, December 2003 thru March 2004

The travel journal during this trip provides the best information about Rapa Nui's annual Tapati festival. 

A little bit of background...

For those of you who so far have no idea what Rapa Nui is or what in the world is so interesting about my journal, this page is for you.  Here's the background story in a nutshell:    

Rapa Nui is a tiny little island, a little more than a quarter of the size of O‘ahu (180 sq. km.; slightly bigger than Kaho‘olawe), located in the southern half of the vast Pacific Ocean.  It's about 4000 miles away from anything.   Also known to the world as Easter Island, it is the island with all those big stone heads on it that you periodically see documentaries about on the Discovery Channel.  Why is it significant to us?  It is one of the three points of the Polynesian Triangle.  If you live in Hawai‘i and don't know which three points make up the Polynesian Triangle - shame on you!  (Okay, okay...the answer is Hawai‘i, New Zealand and Easter Island.)

I ended up there because I worked for the Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS).  The deep sea voyaging canoe Hōkūle‘a, which PVS was responsible for, was making her way there in order to complete a modern voyaging history of sailing to all 3 points of the Polynesian Triangle using only ancient forms of navigation.  (See their website for more information at www.pvs.hawaii.org.  It's really cool!) 

No, I did not "sail on the boat" to get there.  (I get asked that a lot.  And by the way, it's  not a boat - it's a canoe.)  I took a plane like a normal person...or, rather, like a person who gets sea sick.  But my purpose in going there was to be a part of all the ceremonies that followed the canoe's arrival.  I ended up staying for 3 weeks, and it was the best 3 weeks I'd ever had!  I learned so many things about myself and about other cultures!  As a Hawaiian, you share some similarities with other Polynesians, but this was the first time I was able to see those similarities first hand, instead of just hearing about them from others.  I regretted having to leave, and for the first time in my life I felt like I could actually live somewhere other than Hawai‘i. 

While I was there I met someone special, so nearly a year later I decided to try something new and I moved over 4000 miles away to this little island in the middle of nowhere.  I stayed there for 6 months, and during that time I would periodically send e-mails to all of my friends with cute little stories about the things that happened to me.  This is where the real story begins. 

A special Thank You goes out to Pat C. for saving and printing out all of these e-mails for me!  Without her thoughtfulness and massive effort in compiling all of these messages, it would not be possible for me to post them all here for you.  Mahalo e Kapuapono!