A Local Legend

Imagine these steps going on, and on, and on to the top.

With some of our emergency projects out of the way we decided to get off the boat and explore Vava’u. One of our first adventures was the short hike up to Mt. Talau, a beautiful flat topped 430 ft. mountain that dominates the northwest side of Vava’u. With its 300 plus stairs, it was a little bit of a challenge for my left leg which still doesn’t have full mobility, but I hung on to the handrail and made it up to the top. 

This is Neiafu harbor, with the sailboat anchorage just to the right of the picture.

The local legend about why the mountain was flat-topped is quite interesting. Supposedly some Samoans were enjoying the view from their highest mountain and were dismayed to have part of their view blocked by a higher mountain to the south in Tonga. They send down some tevolos (mythical men who can only come out at night) to Tonga to steal the top of the mountain. Hearing the commotion on top of the mountain, some Tongan’s began crowing like roosters thinking it would scare aware the tevolos who would think daylight was coming. But that didn’t work. The tevolos finished cutting off the top of the mountain and were preparing to take it back to Samoa. Then the Tongans said we must call upon on own tevolos, in this case a beautiful woman name Tafakula. She went to the eastern side of the island where the sun was rising, bent over, lifted her skirts, and with the rising sun reflecting off her buttocks she convinced the Samoan tevolos that the sun was up. They dropped the top of the mountain nearby and fled back to Samoa, leaving Mt. Talau with a flat top. Great story that certainly evokes some strong visuals.

The pass into Neiafu Harbor is on the right and the town's new boatyard is just before the bridge on the left.

While in a bit of disarray, there are three lookouts at the top of the mountain that give stunning views to the east and south. It’s amazing to see how much of Tonga is still virgin forest and untouched by agriculture. Hiking back down the mountain we walked back to town and were rewarded by a stop at our favorite ice cream shop for a treat.