Easter Island:
Mountain bike tour Akivi

Easter Island also offers mountain-bikers the possibility of touring it. A classic route is around the entire island, visiting Anakena, Tongariki and Raraku.

There is another comparatively shorter way that goes from Hanga Roa along the coast, through the Ana Te Pahu cave and the impressive Akivi moais, to arrive to the Puna Pau quarry and coming back to the contemplative Hanga Roa. The tour lasts, without stopping, around two hours, however, due to the large quantity of attractions all along the road, it is recommended to take it as a half-day tour. Inexperienced cyclists should shorten the tour (Rohio circuit) and go on foot. The short slopes and especially the bad quality of the roads put cyclists constantly to the test.

Description

The tour starts in the museum of Hanga Roa and goes downhill to the picturesque coast. We will discover the typical moais of Tahia and at the same time a place from which we can enjoy the most wonderful sunsets on the island. Vai Uri, with its five colossal statues and the Ahu Tahai were restored in 1968 by Mulloy and Williams. When observing the Ahu Ko Te Riku moai, with its big eyes and red hat, it looks perfect, but it is only a replica.

It is also worth it to see the foundations of the seaport warehouses, where the cracks in the rock for the wooden poles can still be seen.

From here, we follow the road to the North for 40 tiring minutes, uphill and downhill, until we arrived to the Ahu Te Peu.

After another 10 minutes, we arrive to the remarkable Ana Te Pahu cave. This 100 meters basalt cave is supposed to have its origin in the last volcanic activity of the Maunga Hiva Hiva volcano, less than 10 000 years ago. From here, we don't need even a quarter of an hour to arrive on bicycle to the Akivi moais. It is worth a stop here, before continuing 15 minutes to the road fork that will bring us to the Puna Pau quarry, the next attraction on the road. Next, we turn right and we pedal some 10 minutes uphill. Then, we get to a crossing and we turn right again, where we follow the road until we run into an asphalt street, which brings us back to pleasant Hanga Roa. But before getting to the city, we again get out of the road on a fork to the right, where we follow a gravel road. We take this rough road until after 15 minutes we see the asphalt again. Here we turn left and shortly after, we are entering into downtown Hanga Roa.