Cruising Guide to the Kingdom of Tonga in the Vavau Island Group
17
- PANGAIMOTU: Directly opposite our base on the Pangaimotu shore is
a fine anchorage in sand. It is just s. of the conspicuous
footpath leading down through a clearing and is a good anchorage
during southerlies.
Today Pangaimotu village, with its neat gardens, is fast
becoming a model community but it was once the scene of great
sorrow. Vuna, a high chief, built a house that stood on stilts in
the waters just beyond the village, facing Ofu island. In
addition to being a chief, Vuna was one of Vava'u's famous
"handsome men" and his vanity and his lust could be satisfied only
by a never ending stream of beautiful virgins. These girls, whom
Vuna's scouts chose for him, were brought to the chief by their
mothers who would cling to them and weep until they were torn from
their arms.
The name Pangai in Vava' u and Tonga, denotes land which
belongs to the Crown, as does all of Pangaimotu, including Pangai
and 'Utulei villages.
- TALAU: Rising 430 feet from the sea, Talau is one of Vava'u's
highest spots. A few years ago a young Tongan nurse, a native of
the flat island of Tongatapu, was assigned to the Vava'u Hospital.
A religious young person, she was filled with fervor at the
thought of working on a high island and she exclaimed "I'll be so
much closer to heaven there, and from the top of Talau I might
even be able to glimpse an angel or two flitting about."
