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The yam plantation established by Kuukuu did not succeed as intended. His name indicates that the sun in some way is alluded to. In Hawaii kuukuu means spider:

"The Road of the Spider, which is also referred to in Hawaiian literature as ala-kuukuu, suggests the path by which the Sun spirals north to the June solstice, rising higher and higher each day in the sky of the northern hemisphere, and thence south to the equinox and the December solstice attaining a lower altitude each day, i.e., a combination of its daily and yearly motions. The symbolism is not difficult to perceive if one visualizes the motion of the Sun as continuous from day to day." (Makemson)

If we convert Hawaiian kuukuu (ku'uku'u) to the Rapanui language we should get tukutuku. Though that word (as far as I can ascertain) has no straightforward meaning of 'spider' or 'sun':

'... tukutuku, to fish while swimming, holding a basket-shaped net ... ' (Vanaga)

Did the explorers arrive from Hawaii? Is Hawaii Hiva? In many ways Kuukuu seems to be a key for understanding not only what Metoro said but also for understanding what happened in 'August'.

Therefore I dug deeper into the word tuku. According to Churchill 2 its meaning is 'to go down, to sink down, to lower'. In 'August' sun will noticeably begin to sink lower in the sky.

 "Among the many uses of the apparently cognate Polynesian tuku I select only such as concord with the Efaté tuku, for a close study of the Samoan tu'u (yielding no selection for this purpose) leads to the feeling that it is the remnant of several dissimilar stems.

Maori: tuku, to subside, to settle down. Tahiti: tuutuu, to slacken or ease a rope. Hawaii: kuu, to let down, to slacken. Tonga: tuku, to slacken, to let go as a rope; tukutuku, to sink in the sea. Futuna: tuku, to put down. Niuē: tuku, to bury. Rarotonga: tuku, to let down, to let out, to drop down. Mangareva: tuku, to throw the fishing net of fillet. Paumotu: tuku, to lay down. Sikayana: tuku, to put down. Nukuoro: tuku, to permit, to allow. Manahiki, Fakaafo: tuku, to place. Nuguria: tuku, to set. Rapanui: tuku, to give, to accord.

Viti: tukutha, to let go, to slacken a rope; vakatukutha, to let down in a basket.

Hebrew: s'uah, to sink down. Arabic: sah'a ... tah'a, t'ah'a, id."

If Kuukuu and the rest of the 'visitors' arrived from Hawaii, then they had passed the equator and it would take no great effort of imagination to see how the first yam plantation could have failed.

The month Tangaroa Uri corresponds to October north of the equator, but south of the equator it would be located in spring:

For a planter it is necessary to understand how the sun moves as observed from the locality. Ancient 'telescopes' were used for that purpose. We remember Mnajdra:

"Then I become aware of ... a presence - a faint, ghostly glimmering, like moonglow, that has appeared on the solstice stone. I don't know how long it lasts, a second or two only I would guess, but while it is there it seems less like a projection - which I know it to be - than something immanent within the stone itself. And it seems to function as a herald for it fades almost as soon as it has appeared and in its place the full effect snaps on - instantaneously. It wasn't there, and then it's there.

As Chris had described, the effect does curiously resemble a poleaxe, or a flag on a pole, and consists of a 'shaft', narrow at the base but widening a little towards the top, running up the left hand side of the solstice stone, surmounted by a right-facing 'head' or 'flag'. An instant later an almond-shaped spot of light, like an eye, appears a few centimeters to the right of the 'flag' and the effect is complete.

Weirdly - I do not claim it has any significance - this flag-on-a-pole symbol is the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph neter, meaning 'god', or 'a god' - and not to be understood at all in the Judaeo-Christian usage of that word but rather as a reference to one of the supernatural powers or principles that guide and balance the universe. Manifested here, in this strange Stone Age temple, it glows, as though lit by inner fire." (Hancock 2)

Probably in stone age Malta the year was considered to be initiated at summer solstice. Stonehenge seems to have had the same concept:

"The plan of the five dolmen corresponds exactly with the disc alphabet,

since there is a broad gap between the two standing nearest to the avenue (like the gap which contains the five holy days of the Egyptian, or Etruscan, year) and between the gap and the avenue stood a group of four smaller undressed stones [i.e. A, O, E, I], corresponding with the groups of three stones in the inner horseshoe, but with a gap in the middle; and far back, in the avenue itself, the huge undressed 'Heel' stone [U] made a fifth and central one.

This is not to assume that Stonehenge was built to conform with the disc-alphabet. The calendar may have anteceded the alphabet by some centuries. All that seems clear is that the Greek alphabetic formula which gives the Boibel-Loth its letter-names is at least a century or two earlier than 400 B.C. when the Battle of the Trees were fought in Britain.

The formula is plain. The Sun-god of Stonehenge was the Lord of Days, and the thirty arches of the outer circle and the thirty posts of the inner circle stood for the days of the ordinary Egyptian month; but the secret enclosed by the these circles was that the solar year was divided into five seasons, each in turn divided into three twenty-four-day periods, represented by the three smaller posts in front of the dolmens.

For the circle was so sited that at dawn of the summer solstice the sun rose exactly at the end of the avenue in dead line with the altar and the Heel stone; while, of the surviving pair of four undressed stones, one marks the sun's rising at the winter solstice, the other its setting at the summer solstice." (The White Goddess)

I think the kind of thought system described here was used also on Rapa Nui. Therefore the 4 glyphs Aa1-5--8 probably are four cardianal 'posts':

However, the 4 following glyphs, Aa1-9--12:

may imply that all the firstmentioned four glyphs were located during 'summer', to hold the sky high and assure a season dominated by light. In the second group all four glyphs are marked by the moon, telling of a time of darkness.

We can read a gradually deepening darkness, first suggested by the raised arm in Aa1-9, then by adding a moon sickle as elbow ornament (in Aa1-10), then by ihe and a strangled sun in Aa1-11 and at last a thick darkness in Aa1-12 (visualized as a thick ihe).