The first official OCE expedition consisted of only three members: Rune, Trespass and Meridian. Their job, other than exploring the mysteries of Rapa Nui, was to field test the new OCE protocol for investigations which proved to be only marginally successful.

“We were all very nervous about this,” remembered Meridian. “It was partly the notion of going to such a rural place with little time to prepare, but also because everything we did was going to be recorded and transmitted all over the world on the Internet. I remember all of us even talking about how it was like being on our own reality show... and really that's exactly what it was.”

Rapa Nui was chosen as the first investigation site because the OCE team members agreed that exploring their “own backyard” of the South Pacific and Oceania was the most appropriate starting point for an expedition which is intended to span the entire globe. About 5 million people live among the islands of this region, representing a variety of races and nationalities. Although most of the islands the OCE team were interested in were to the south and west of Hawai’i, there was one very obvious exception: Rapa Nui or Easter Island.

The three person team landed on the island on February 8th, staying for the first few days in the area of Hangaroa, the capital city and only real urban area on Rapa Nui. Their first outing was to the Sebastian Englert Anthropological Museum in an effort to gain greater knowledge about the ancient culture that once inhabited this speck of land.

“We all felt so stupid,” said Rune. “Trespass kept calling the moai the “big heads” because we didn't even know the proper name for them. It was a sloppy beginning.”

The other challenge that became immediately apparent was good ground transportation. The team rented an off-road vehicle from a local source but found it to be unreliable at best. Still, they pressed on and arrived at their first archaeological site on February 15th. They parked along the roadside and walked about 4 miles in heavy backpacks to the quarry of Rano Raraku. For shelter overnight, they only brought one large portable tent which sadly no one knew how to set up. That night they slept with it only partially erected and in imminent danger of collapsing at any time.

Rano Raraku was both the birthplace and graveyard of the thousands of moai that ring the island. It is one of several extinct volcanoes on the island. At the base of the quarry was a large fresh water lake where wild horses came to drink. Even more plentiful were the giant stone heads for which the island is famous.

“It was a uniquely eerie feeling to wander along the grassy plain that leads to the volcano and suddenly find yourself surrounded by hundreds of giant, unblinking faces,” reported Rune in her online journal. “Most estimates number the moai here at close to 400, but since some seem to be partially buried in the ground, who knows how many remain to be discovered? Some stand at odd angles, like they’ve been hobbled by time. Others are face down in the dirt, broken in half, or otherwise imperfect and abandoned by their ancient artists.”

Although the OCE team members were able to correctly deduce how the immense statues were built, the one question that perplexed our team (and the international archaeological community) was how that islanders actually moved the statues once they were completed. Even if the islanders had modern cranes and energy sources, it would have been problematic to move the moai over such rough terrain without damaging or destroying them. In fact, many of the "dead" statues appeared to have fallen apart while in transit.

The team spent the next few days in and around the Rano Raraku area before proceeding onto the ceremonial village of Orongo on February 26th. The village was located on the rim of a volcano called Rano Kau. The threesome spent two full days exploring this area, which was barely enough time. Rano Kau as an impressive volcanic caldera in the shape of a large cereal bowl. A footpath led along the rim of the caldera, with cliffs that dropped dramatically on the other side to the sea below. Various stone buildings and temples were secreted along the way. At the bottom of the caldera were a patchwork of marshes and creeping greenery. Innumerable birds nested in the cliffs and soared around the caldera’s edge. It was this sight that made the team begin to understand the shift in the belief systems of the Rapanuians.

There were no huge moai at Orongo, but there were numerous images of a bird-like god. This was Makemake, the supreme god of Rapa Nui whose cult seemed to have supplanted the ancestor worship religion which culminated in the creation of the moai. The importance of birds to an island as remote as Rapa Nui cannot be understated. Birds provided food, feathers, eggs and other raw materials necessary to the survival of the islanders. Makemake was therefore credited with everything from creating humankind to making the plants and animals grow. Over time, the islanders shifted into two main groups: those that worshiped Makemake and those that clung onto the ancestor worship beliefs. As is sadly the case in these situations, the two groups eventually decided to reconcile their differences through bloodshed. Eventually, whether it was due to victory in battle or the enlightenment of the people, the warfare seems to have ended and Makemake ruled supreme. Orongo became the center of his worship and the most important place on the island.

While at Orongo, Trespass became interested in an all-male festival that is still held to this day to honor Makemake. During this competition, young tribesmen would scramble down a one thousand-foot precipice to the beach below. There they would board a raft made of bundled reeds and paddle over a mile through shark-infested waters to the islet of Motu Nui. If the warrior arrived in one piece, he would wait for days in a cave for the annual migration of the speckled sooty tern, a seabird sacred to Makemake. The first warrior to steal a freshly laid tern egg and return to Rapa Nui alive was declared the victor. Trespass modified the experience by paddling to Motu Nui in an inflatable raft and taking along Rune as his photographer. Meridian stayed on shore to summon a rescue party if the experience went awry. The team reenacted the competition on March 3rd.

Problems began when heavy clouds rolled in and a cold rain fell sporadically. Trespass wanted to find and document the caves used by the Rapanuian warriors but only had a vague description of where they were. Although he finally found their location, problems arose again when he crawled inside to explore one and became lost in the darkness for over two hours. He finally found another exit from the cavern, but in the process wounded his head on a rocky outcrop.

By this point, both Trespass and Rune were more than ready to leave Motu Nui but the high winds had apparently blown their raft back into the sea. They radioed Meridian and she agreed to drive back to Hanga Roa and hire a rescue boat, but Trespass was quite certain that a fisherman or pleasure boater would find them if they simply stayed on the beach and in plain sight. Strangely enough, about half an hour later a small motor boat with two middle-aged Rapanuian men came puttering by the beach and they kindly returned both the castaways to Hanga Roa where they met up with Meridian. The fishermen said they spotted a woman (apparently Rune) running along the cliffs and stopped to investigate. Rune to this day does not understand how the men could have seen her since she was in a completely different part of the islet at the time. The Rapa Nui expedition officially ended on March 8th.

Despite the problems toward the end, the Rapa Nui expedition did provide some useful information for the OCE team. After Trespass, Rune and Meridian returned to Kaua'i, Hawai'i, greater emphasis was put on acquiring better communications equipment (such as satellite phones and modems for the laptop computers) and more survival equipment. All of the OCE members also took advanced first aid and wilderness survival courses. The experience also uncovered to major divisions among the OCE team members, with some members favoring a more conservative and pragmatic approach to the investigations, and others arguing that a more spontaneous approach was in better keeping with the tradition of historical wanderers. These arguments resurface among the members to this day.