The form of our figure for number eight says it in picture language: Order is increasing, there will be a new perfect figure soon. But the 8th 'island' cannot be seen, there are only 7 days in the week. Te Pei is like Easter Island - far down in the south, in the region of 'water' (south of the equator):

"1. Easter Island (te pito o te kainga) is the last of all known islands. Seven lands lie before it, but these do not recommend themselves for settlement.

Easter Island is the 'eighth land' (te varu kainga). Actually, we are dealing here with a figure of speech because 'seven' and 'eight' used as qualifying quantities play a traditional role in Oceania (Barthel 1962a). While the number seven is known as a topos in MQS., HAW., and MAO., the topos of the number eight goes far beyond eastern Polynesia (MQS., HAW., TAH.).

In TON., the number eight is 'a conventional term signifying many or a well-balanced number' (McKern 1929:17), and on Malaita in the southern Solomon Islands, the physical world in its entirety is referred to as 'eight islands (wālu malau) (Ivens 1927:400).

The number eight not only means 'many' but also denotes perfection. Thus, when Easter Island was called 'an eighth land', the expression contained first of all the idea of a 'last' island - an island farthest away from the rest of the islands that make up the oceanic world. At the same time, the expression indicated a special position among the other islands. The idea of groups of seven, which are surpassed by an eight element, seems to belong to the cosmology of Asian high cultures. For example, there are seven planets circling the world axis, which represents the eighth, and therefore central, position." (Barthel 2)

Notice that te varu kainga is not te kainga varu. You must distinguish between tagata kai (a man eating) and kai tagata (eating a man) - the main word comes first, the secondary distinction comes second. Te varu kainga is literally the land of number 8 (not the 8th land).