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Possibly the yam planter Kuukuu died because of his associations with the sun. His name may refer to the sun 'spider' and his occupation as yam planter also involves the sun (I guess). Metoro said uhi tapa mea for the periods of the daylight, which I translate as uhi = yam and tapa mea = red cloth count.

The great bird kukuru toûa may have something to do with this too. It is number 6 on Barthel's list of birds and preceded by the onomatopoetic ka araara (for the last stage in the development of manu tara), similar to Metoro's raaraa in at midnight:

Raá is the sun (day, time etc), and raaraa may be an allusion to raá. Araara, on the other hand, may be an allusion to the path (ara) of the sun.

Tauuruuru we probably should read as tau-uruuru. Possibly we should interpret tau with ta'u = year (season, age etc) and uruuru with to reach around the cycle and thread one of its ends into the other:

"The Malay word for 'year' is taun or tahun. In all Polynesian dialects the primary sense is 'a season', 'a period of time'. In the Samoan group tau or tausanga, besides the primary sense of season, has the definite meaning of 'a period of six months', and conventionally that of 'a year', as on the island of Tonga. Here the word has the further sense of 'the produce of the year', and derivatively 'a year'. In the Society group it simply means 'season'. In the Hawaiian group, when not applied to the summer season, the word keeps its original sense of 'an indefinite period of time', 'a life-time, an age', and is never applied to the year: its duration may be more or less than a year, according to circumstances. So far our authority (Fornander, I, 124; cp. 119). It seems however to be questionable whether the original sense is not the concrete 'produce of the seasons', rather than the abstract 'period of time'. It is significant that on the Society Islands the bread-fruit season is called te tau, and the names of the other two seasons, te tau miti rahi and te tau poai, are formed by adding to this name." Nilsson.

"Uru 1. To enter, to penetrate, to thread, to come into port (huru); uru noa, to enter deep. Hakauru, to thread, to inclose, to admit, to drive in, to graft, to introduce, penetrate, to vaccinate, to recruit. Akauru, to calk. Hakahuru, to set a tenon into the mortise, to dowel. Hakauruuru, to interlace; hakauruuru mai te vae, to hurry to. 2. To clothe, to dress, to put on shoes, a crown. Hakauru, to put on shoes, to crown, to bend sails, a ring. 3. Festival, to feast. 4. To spread out the stones of an oven. Uruuru, to expand a green basket. 5. Manu uru, kite." Churchill.

Alpers has 6 explorers but in Manuscript E (according to Barthel 2) they were 7. That makes a great difference: 6 is a number of the sun but 7 is a number of the moon. I have earlier used those 6 explorers (according to Alpers) as an argument for interpreting the glyphs below (Hb2-44 etc and parallels) as those dark 365 - 360 days between the years when a major break must occur:

 There is a turtle among those 6, viz.:

and we may even see 'flippers' (perhaps a sign for winter solstice - cfr GD33, viri):

Number 7 changes the circumstances to - presumably - the corresponding events of the moon, i.e. from 'December' to 'August' (= from Anakena to Tehetu'upu):

I don't know from where Alpers got his 6 explorers, but 7 explorers seems to be firmly established:

"The discovery of the residence for the island king is paid for with a sacrifice: Kuukuu, the first-born son of Hua Tava, is defeated by a 'turtle'. This episode appears like a leit-motif through all the traditional versions since Thomson. An explanation is given in one tradition:

The seven men looked around and saw that the turtle had crawled on land in the bay (of Hanga Hoonu). It was the spirit (kuhane) and not a turtle. It was a spirit that already had followed them.

The seven laughed and went on their way. When the turtle saw that the seven went on their way, the turtle followed them out to sea ...

(After the discovery of Anakena), the turtle also arrived (on the beach) of Hiro Moko ...

(After Kuukuu's defeat), the turtle hurried away and returned to Hiva. (TP:28-29)

Since 'Hiva' was considered the home of all spirits, the place of the turtle's disappearance makes sense." (Barthel 2)

Barthel - as seen - draws the conclusion that the death of Kuukuu was a sacrifice. That makes sense from the general idea about the necessity of someone dying before somebody else will be born.

In my interpretation of these rongorongo texts I start with the assumption that most (possibly all) the sequences of glyphs primarily are to be read as different kinds of 'calendars'. If I am right, then we should be able to read that 'births' of new 'seasons' are preceded by 'deaths'.

'On August 13th, the pre-Christian feast of the Mother Goddess Diana, or Vesta, was once celebrated with cyder, a roasted kid spitted on hazel-twigs and apples hanging in clusters from a bough ....' (The White Goddess)