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Next basic (polysyllabic words are open to wordplay) key word is piki:

Piki

To climb, to mount, to go up; piki aruga, to surpass; pikipiki, to embark, to go aboard; hakapiki, to climb. P Pau.: piki, to climb, to ascend, to mount. Mgv.: piki, to mount, to go up, to climb. Mq.: piki, pií, to mount, to climb, to go aloft. Ta.: pii, to mount. Pikiga, ascent, steps, stairs; Mgv.: pikiga, a stair, ladder, step. Pikipiki: rauoho pikipiki, black hair and curly. P Pau.: tupikipiki, to curl, to frizzle. Churchill.

Pau.: pikiafare, cat. Ta.: piiafare, id. Churchill.

Going up (piki) is necessary when moving eastwards from Mahatua onto the Poike peninsula and to Maunga Teatea (item 25).

This explanation is far too simple, though. We must first contemplate what Fornander has to say:

"PI'I, v. Haw., to strike upon or extend, as the shadow on the ground or on a wall; to ascend, go up.

N. Zeal., piki, to ascend. Sam.: pi'i, to cling to, to climb. Marqu., piki, to climb, ascend; piki-a, steps, acclivity. Tong., piki, to adhere to, to climb, ascend. Fiji., bici-bici, a peculiar kind of marking on native cloth.

Sanskr., pin'j, to dye or colour; pin'jara, yellow, tawny. Lat., pingo, to paint, represent, embroider.

The marking out or tracing a shadow on the ground or on a wall was probably the primary attempt at painting. In the Hawaiian alone the sense of an ascent, compared to the lengthening of the shadows, has been retained. As the sun descended the shadows were thought to ascend or creep up the mountain-side.

The sense of 'marking, tracing', seems only to have been retained in the Fijian, where so much other archaic Polynesian lore has been retained, and thus brings this word in connection with the Sanskrit and Latin."

It is remarkable to find ehu (ashes) as an association connected with a location in the eastern corner of the island - the sun goes down in the west. But if we are interested in how the shadows are lengthening in late afternoon we should look east and not west. The shadows in the east are going up when sun is going down in the west.

These shadows could possibly be seen creeping upwards on the slope of Poike, but I do not think such a literal translation is the right one. Instead, the 'shadows' could refer to how the sky in the east is growing darker while the rest of the sky dome still is light. The dark 'wall' (or 'cloth') rising in the eastern sky in the evenings certainly was observed fact. I guess this is what piki rangi indicates.