Note from Christian: From time to time I take a break from the thrilling world of international tax to write about travel and the expat lifestyle. Below is an opportunity I came across and wanted to share with you. It is presented by my friend, Dr. Wheeler, and is sure to be a most excellent adventure!
THE DOUBLE HIDDEN ADVENTURE
A Jack Wheeler Expedition
Thursday, August 21 – Tuesday September 02, 2014
For serious globetrotters, there are few places on earth they yearn to see more than the world’s two great Islands of Mystery and Legend lost in the remotest South Pacific – Easter Island and Pitcairn Island.
Since we were kids, we’ve all seen pictures of Easter’s huge brooding stone statues – but how many people do you know who have seen and experienced them for real? The power and magic of being with the moai as they are called will never leave you.
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And who among us has not heard the story of The Mutiny on the Bounty – of how, on April 28, 1789, Fletcher Christian, first mate of HMS (His Majesty’s Ship of the British Royal Navy) Bounty led a mutiny of the crew against the tyrannical Captain William Bligh, set Bligh and crew members loyal to him in a longboat, and took the Bounty to sail into history.
Clark Gable was Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty, which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1935. Marlon Brando played him in 1962, as did Mel Gibson in 1984. Everyone knows the story, for it is epically famous. Yet so very, very few have ever experienced being where it took place. Now you can.
Fletcher Christian and the Bounty Mutineers discovered and settled on an uninhabited island in remotest Polynesia – Pitcairn Island – so remote you can only sail to it, and where the descendants of the Mutineers and their Tahitian wives still live to this day. It’s meeting and becoming friends with these extraordinary people that makes visiting Pitcairn so memorable.
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This August, you can join Jack Wheeler to both of these legendary places in a double Hidden Adventure. Of the lucky few who have been to either, most all went to each individually. Combining both Easter and Pitcairn – and in less than two weeks – brings that cost down dramatically. To reach Easter and Pitcairn separately will cost far more.
Here is our schedule. Get ready for a life-memorable Double Adventure. And please note: This is a highly exclusive Hidden Adventure. Only nine – 9 – of you can join Jack. There is no room for any more. We hope you are among them.
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Thursday, August 21
Note: Everyone is responsible for arriving in Santiago in time for our flight to Easter Island. There are nonstop flights from, e.g., JFK, Dallas, Atlanta ,and Miami. The quickest is AA7729, leaving Miami at 9:35pm Wednesday evening and arriving Santiago at 5:55am Thursday morning.
Our adventure begins with a flight from Santiago, Chile to Easter Island – called Isla de Pascua by Chileans and Rapa Nui by the islanders. We depart LAN Chile 841 at 8:00am and arrive at 11:55am. We’ll be met by Bill & Edith, owners of the Taura’a Hotel in the island capital of Hanga Roa.
After lunch, Edith will take us on a walk around Hanga Roa meeting many of her friends. Then we’ll watch the spectacular sunset at Ahu Tahai (an ahu is the stone platform altar on which moai were erected).
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Friday, August 21 to Sunday, August 24
We have three days of guided tours exploring Rapa Nui. We’ll visit the quarry of Rano Roraku, to see where the giant moai were carved out of the volcanic tufa stone:
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We’ll walk along the lip of the Orango Crater and see the rock carvings of the Bird Man of Rapa Nui:
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There are over 350 ahus around the island’s circumference, many with moai of various sizes upon them. We won’t get to all of them but certainly all of the best. A sample:
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Image may be NSFW.
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Monday, August 25
You’ll know your way around now, so today you get to explore Rapa Nui on your own – by foot, bicycle, horseback, motor scooter, your choice. You can swim, snorkel, explore caves, spend time with the locals, and have as fun time as you can.
After our Farewell Easter dinner, it’s off to the airport and the once-a-week flight to Papeete, Tahiti. We arrive past midnight and transfer to the Faaa Airport Motel to get a few hours’ sleep. We must get up early.
Tuesday, August 26
The once-a-week Air Tahiti flight to Gambier Island, also known as Mangareva, departs at 8:15am and arrives at 2:00pm. We immediately transfer to our ship, the Claymore II. It is the Pitcairn Government’s passenger and cargo vessel. The cabins are comfortable, the food is good, the ship bar is open. The voyage takes 32 hours to reach Pitcairn.
Wednesday, August 27
At sea aboard the Claymore II.
Thursday, August 28
We arrive at anchor in Pitcairn’s Bounty Bay by dawn. After sunrise, a longboat will come to land us at the tiny landing cove:
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Almost everyone on the island will be there to greet us. A ship coming in is a big deal to one of the most isolated communities on earth. We’ll be driven up the Hill of Difficulty in ATVs to Adamstown, where we’ll stay in Pitcairners’ private homes.
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The islanders are renowned for being open-hearted and hospitable, so we’ll get an ultra-warm welcome. We’ll explore the island tomorrow, but today so many Pitcairners will be inviting us over to their place for a cup of tea that we’ll hardly get out of Adamstown. We will, however, see the Bounty Bible on display, the Bounty anchor, and two of the Bounty’s cannons.
Oh, yes, we’ll snorkel in Bounty Bay over the site where Fletcher Christian burned and sank The Bounty so the English wouldn’t find it.
Friday, August 29 – Sunday, August 31
For two full days and most of Sunday, we’ll explore one of the world’s most legendary yet unknown islands, being guided by Pitcairners We’ll walk to Fletcher Christian’s Cave, peer over The Edge, examine ancient petroglyphs, and swim in St. Paul’s Pool:
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On Friday night, we’ll join a festive dinner at Olive Christian’s home, Big Fence. Everyone on the island shows up for a lot of food and even more fun. For this is Pitcairn’s main attraction: its people. They are among our planet’s most unique people, and the friendliest. It won’t take long until you have found life-long friends among them. You won’t want to leave.
But we must. After a sumptuous Sunday brunch at Olive’s lasting until mid-afternoon, the longboat will take us back to the Claymore II. The goodbyes will be tearful. You won’t believe how much you’ll miss Pitcairn as it recedes into the distance.
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Monday, September 1
At sea aboard the Claymore II. We’ll try not to drink too many rum punches.
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Tuesday, September 2
We arrive at the dock of Rikitea, the main village of Mangreva, at sunrise. This, as you can see, is a beautiful island:
We can snorkel in the bay, explore Rikitea, and visit one of Mangareva’s famous pearl farms, to see how some of the world’s most gorgeous pearls are grown.
Mangareva is renowned in Polynesia for its pearl farms. This morning, we’ll visit one owned by a Mangarevan named Dada and his family, who’ll show us how some of the world’s most gorgeous pearls are grown.
After lunch, we board the Air Tahiti flight back to Papeete, departing at 2:20pm, arriving at 5:20 pm. We’ll repair to the nearby Intercontinental Resort for our Farewell Dinner. For it is here we must say farewell to each other until the next adventure.
Some of us will be taking the late evening flight back to the US (LA or Honolulu). Others will be bound for Tahitian islands such as Moorea or Bora Bora. Or perhaps continuing on to Tonga or Fiji. No matter where we go from here, we will always have Easter Island and Pitcairn forever as part of our lives.
Details
Cost: $9,450 per person
Cost includes:
*All accommodation as specified in itinerary. Note: Single occupancy if requested on Easter and Pitcairn. No single occupancy is possible on the Claymore II. Cabins are twin-share.
*All meals, including bottled water and soft drinks, throughout the itinerary.
*Air Tahiti flight Papeete-Mangareva/Gambier-Papeete.
*Claymore II Mangareva-Pitcairn-Mangareva.
*All activities specified in the itinerary.
Cost does not include:
*International air travel.
*All personal expenses for incidentals, and alcoholic drinks.
*Visas (required for Chile/Easter). Visas are not required in Pitcairn or French Polynesia for US citizens.
Deposits, Payments, Cancellations and Refunds
*Non-refundable deposit of $1,000 upon booking
*Balance in full – $8,450 – must be received by June 1st, 2014.
*Refund of deposit and balance in full on the condition of a fully-paid acceptable replacement for you. Note: You may want to consider trip cancellation insurance.
Please send all booking requests and inquiries to: jwexpeditions@gmail.com
Dr. Jack Wheeler has had two parallel careers: one in adventure and exploration with Wheeler Expeditions; the other in the field of geopolitics after receiving his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Southern California, where he lectured on Aristotelian ethics.
His adventures began early. The youngest Eagle Scout in history at age 12, he climbed the Matterhorn at age 14, swam the Hellespont (LIFE Magazine 12/12/60) and lived with Amazon headhunters at 16, hunted a man-eating tiger in Vietnam at 17, and started an export business in Vietnam at 19. He wrote The Adventurer’s Guide (New York: Mackay, 1975), described by Merv Griffin as “the definitive book for anyone wishing to lead a more adventurous and exciting life.” He has three “first contacts” with tribes never before contacted by the outside world: a clan of Aushiri in the Amazon, the Wali-ali-fo in New Guinea, and a band of Bushmen in the Kalahari. He retraced Hannibal’s route over the Alps with elephants; led numerous expeditions in Central Asia, China, Tibet, Africa, the Amazon and elsewhere, including 18 expeditions to the North Pole; and has been listed in The Guinness Book of World Records for the northernmost free fall skydive in history, on the North Pole. His company has conducted exclusive expeditions to dozens of countries across the globe for over 35 years.
Dr. Wheeler has been called the “real Indiana Jones” by the Wall Street Journal. He has traveled to 193 countries on all seven continents. He leads three to five expeditions a year. In addition to consulting and writing, he works with business leaders on projects worldwide.
On a personal note, he married Ms. Rebel Holiday in St Tropez, France in 1986. They are the proud parents of two fine young men.
Rebel has traveled to 85 countries – and joins when she can! She is very involved in business and the arts. She often helps find the best restaurants and plan other fun activities on trips.