Reva indicates the upper regions:

Reva

To hang down; flag, banner. Revareva, 1. To be hanging vertically; to detach oneself from the background of the landscape, such a person standing on top of a hill: ku-revareva-á te tagata i ruga i te maúga. 2. To cast itself, to project itself (of shadows); revareva-á te kohu o te miro i te maeha o te mahina, the shadow of the tree casts itself in the light of the moon. 3. Uvula. Vanaga.

To hang, to suspend, flag, banner; hakareva, to hang up; hakarereva, to hang up, to balance; hakarevareva, to wave. T Pau.: reva, a flag; fakarevareva, to hang up, to suspend. Mgv.: reva, a flag, a signal. Mq.: éva, to hang up, to be suspended, to wave a signal. Ta.: reva, a flag, banner; revareva, to wave. The germ sense is that of being suspended ... any light object hung up in the island air under the steady tradewind will flutter; therefore the specification involved in the wave sense is no more than normal observation. Churchill.

Mgv.: 1. A plant. Ta.: reva, id. Mq.: eva, id. Sa.: leva, id. Ma.: rewa-rewa, id. 2. To cross, to pass across quickly; revaga, departure. Ta.: reva, to go away, to depart. Ma.: reva, to get under way. Churchill.

Ta.: The firmanent, atmosphere. Ha.: lewa, the upper regions of the air, atmosphere, the visible heavens. Churchill.

"LEWA, s. Haw., the upper air, region of clouds; v. to swing, float in the air, move back and forth; hoo-lewa, to vibrate, float in the air, carry between two persons, as a corpse, a funeral.

Tah., rewa, the firmanent, an abyss; rewa-rewa, to fly about, as a flag.

Mangr., rewa, the overhanging firmanent, a tent, a flag.

N. Zeal., rewa, the eyelid.

Marqu., ewa, to suspend; s. the middle.

Sam., leva (of time), long since; v. be protracted.

Fiji., rewa, high, height; vaka-rewa, to lift up, to hoist, as a sail.

Malg., lifa, v. to fan oneself, s. flight; rafraf, a fan.

Goth., luftus, the air.

Sax., lyfti, air, arch, vault.

O. Engl., lift, air.

Lat., limbus (?), fringe, flounce.

Sanskr., dev, div, primarily 'jacere, jaculare', according to A. Pictet (Orig. Ind.-Eur., ii. 466), subsequently 'to play at dice', play generally. The permutation of d and l may be observed in the Latin levir, brother-in-law (the husband's younger brother) = Sanskr. devŗi, devara, id.

If dev or div has derived the sense of 'throwing dice' from an older sense 'jacere, jaculare', to throw, to hurl, that sense may be a derivative from a still older one, 'to lift up, swing about, be suspended' = the Polynesian lewa, rewa, 'to be suspended, to vibrate'. And thus we can also understand the origin of the Goth. luftus, the Sax. lyfte, the O. Norse loft, Swed. lowera, lofwa, Engl. luff." (Fornander)

The basic idea is that the sky 'fish' (moon, sun etc) is ready to be lifted up from the watery region (which for the sun comes at Te Pei). The Maya indians are helpful by their 'adaptation' of the phases of Venus:

 phase

observed periods

periods in the Mayan 'map'

difference

morning star

263

236

- 27

black

50

90

+ 40

evening star

263

250

- 13

black

8

8

0

sum

584

584

0

Te Pei at 8 * 29.5 = 236 is the last day of the first half (472 / 2 = 236), the 'morning', of the year, and then it turns around:

 
Gb1-6 (236) Gb1-7

Sun is being 'driven out, banished' (pei) from the island and he becomes a 'tasty fish' (pe'i) which can be caught in the 'deep waters'. Down there it is completely black.

A quarter later it is time to take him up again. The cycle cannot stop. He will become an 'evening star'. 236 + 90 = 326 or close to Akahanga at 11 * 29.5 = 324.5. The spirit of the sun goes up into the night sky already at Hua Reva, his body is then buried at Akahanga.

But his skull is taken care of separately, in order to be completely dried out and later hanged high in the daytime sky again:

... Ure Honu was amazed and said, 'How beautiful you are! In the head of the new bananas is a skull, painted with yellow root and with a strip of barkcloth around it.' Ure Honu stayed for a while, (then) he went away and covered the roof of his house in Vai Matā. It was a new house. He took the very large skull, which he had found at the head of the banana plantation, and hung it up in the new house. He tied it up in the framework of the roof (hahanga) and left it hanging there ...