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A word play involving gao and garo seems quite possible:

 

Garo

1. To disappear, to become lost. He tere, he garo. He ran away and disappeared. He û'i te Ariki, ku garo á te kaíga i te vai kava. The king saw that the land had disappeared in the sea. I te ahiahi-ata he garo te raá ki raro ki te vai kava. In the evening the sun disappears under the sea. Ku garo á te kupu o te tai i a au. I have forgotten the words of the song (lit. the words of the song have become lost to me). Ina koe ekó garo. Don't disappear (i.e. don't go), or: don't get lost on the way.  2. Hidden. Te mana'u garo, hidden thoughts. Kona garo o te tagata, 'people's hidden places': pudenda. Vanaga.

To disappear, to stray, to omit, to lose oneself, to pass, absent, to founder, to drown, to sink; garo noa, to go away forever, to be rare; garo atu ana, formerly. Hakagaro, to cover with water; hakagaro te rakerakega, to pardon. Garoa, loss, absence, to be away, to drown, not comprehended, unitelligible. Garoaga, setting; garoaga raa, sunset, west. Garoraa, the sun half-set. Garovukua, to swallow up. Churchill.

Garo would then refer to sun sinking in the west, and gao to his appearing in the east. But Metoro never said garo while reading the tablets.