Ta'ū

Ta'ū is the largest of the Manu'a islands and, in Samoan tradition, the place where the god Tagaloa made the world. Its southern side falls into the sea in cliffs of up to nine hundred metres, among the highest sea cliffs anywhere, and the whole southern half belongs to the National Park of American Samoa. Saua on the east coast is held to be where the Polynesian people began, marked by a plain shore of black rock. Villages sit on the northern flat. Tracks lead into rainforest under Lata Mountain, and the island runs on solar power and very few vehicles.