Easter Island is remote. Located 3,700km off the Chilean coast, the closest inhabited island is Pitcairn Island, 1,900km to the west. Before the airport was built around 30 years ago, a boat came from Chile once a year. You couldn't get much further away from the rest of the world.

Now, around 20,000 visitors come to this World Heritage site every year to see the legacy of the past - the enigmatic and massive Moai.

We flew in from Santiago de Chile as the pink streaks of sunset straggled across the sky. As we descended, a dark land mass took shape and we glimpsed the vague outline of some Moai statues near the coast. At the small terminal, arrivals were greeted with traditional leis made from tropical flowers.

Formed around 3 million years ago from three volcanoes that now form the cornerstones of the triangular island, Easter Island (Rapa Nui in the local language) is black rock and rough seas. Unlike another of its closest neighbours, Tahiti, the island is not a beach paradise. The coast is rocky and pounded by an unforgiving ocean.

At night, the island is so dark that I would not have realized that the water was virtually at my doorstep except for the sound of the waves crashing over rocks.

One of the most charming sights in Rapa Nui was the tanned and good-looking local men riding their horses around the streets or through the surf at the island's only beach, Anakena. It's also possible to hike around the island as it is only 171sq/km in total area.

'The City'

On our first morning, we decided to go for a walk into the main settlement, Hanga Roa. This is optimistically referred to as "The City". Rapa Nui has around 4,000 inhabitants, most of whom live in the Hanga Roa area. The main street is one of the few paved ones on the island and is dotted with cafes, general stores selling clothes and other necessities and souvenir shops.

Although Hanga Roa has no bookstores, large supermarkets, or department stores, there are two discos, a tattoo parlour and a tiny shack selling Nike trainers.

The stores and cafes have irregular hours, according to the whim of their owners and are expensive. However, as almost everything is imported and the sellers have a virtual monopoly, it is to be expected that the prices will be high.

At the edge of the settlement, near a small fishing area, we found our first Moai. It was a solitary one, re-erected on an "ahu" and looking back into the village. "Ahu" is the name for the platforms on which the Moai stand. Every single Moai on the island was knocked down during a period of unrest in the island's history. No-one knows exactly what happened, but reports from visitors to the island in the 19th century claim that by 1840 no Moai were left standing at that time. Many of the island's statues are still lying as they were left, mostly face down on the ground.

Birdman competition

In the afternoon, we take our first guided tour. We head out to Rano Kau, one of the island's volcanoes. The volcanoes have been extinct for thousands of years. Inside the volcano are small ponds and reeds which were traditionally used to thatch houses and build boats.

Near the volcano is Orongo, one of the most important sites on the island. Every year, priests and people of high status on the island would move to Orongo for the Birdman competition.

The Birdman was a half-man half-bird god. Representatives of the high-status men would swim out to the group of islands off the coast to collect the egg of a special bird. Being the first to find the egg earned his "employer" the privilege of being king of the island for that year. The finder himself was rewarded with a pale-skinned virgin bride.

At Orongo, there are 53 reconstructed houses that were used during these ceremonies. The houses are canoe shaped and very low with small entrances. These houses were designed only for sleeping in as other daily activities such as cooking were performed outside. There are also around a thousand petroglyphs in this area, some representing the birdman and others the god Maku-maku.

Later in the day we head to Ahu Vinapu which is unique on the island for its resemblance to Inca stonework. Although not as finely constructed as the Inca Imperial style, the masonry was different in style from any other on the island. Another Rapa Nui mystery.

Power of Moai

The second day, we had a full-day tour. The definite highlight was Rano Raraku. This volcano was the Moai quarry. Here, all the Moai were carved out of the rock before being transported to ahus on various parts of the islands.

In the quarry are over 400 Moai in various stages of completion with some even halfway down the hill halted on their journey to an "ahu". It is literally as if the furious Moai-making activity that seems to have taken place here suddenly one day just stopped. Again, as with most of the questions about the island's history, there is no real answer as to why.

Some of the statues here are up to 22 metres in length. There are also some Moai with unusual characteristics including a kneeling one. Inside the volcano is a freshwater lake.

Our tour continued on to Ahu Tongariki which is the largest platform on the island. It has 15 statues and was restored in 1992 with the help of the people of Japan. The tallest Moai on this ahu is around 10 metres high.

The archaeologists involved in the restoration project had decided not to put back any of the topknots (red stone "hats" that represent the hairstyles of the people at the time) because it was unknown which of the statues were given topknots originally. However, one morning they arrived to find that the local people who were assisting with the restoration, had placed a topknot on one of the Moai already. Thus, it remains today.

The Moai now all have blank eye sockets, but evidence of white coral, red scoria and obsidian "eyes" have been found on the island. It is believed that the eyes gave the "mana" or the power to the statues.

Tropical paradise

Before reaching Anakena, our final destination, we stopped at a place known as "The navel of the world". Here, the local people found a rock that had been buffeted by the sea to perfect roundness. They believe that if you touch the rock, you will feel the energy of the earth through your hands.

Anakena is the main beach of the island. Although the island map lists four beaches, Anakena is the biggest (although still very small) and the only one with Moai. Here at last is a little of the tropical paradise I had been half-expecting. There was a white coral sand beach, turquoise waters and palm trees and a row of standing Moai with topknots surveying the scene.

Here also is the first Moai to be re-erected in 1956 by Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian who had great interest in Rapa Nui.

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