Transcript
FEKITA 'UTOIKAMANU - There's two tales about this rock. Firstly that it's a stone in a Tongan legend that recounts the story of Maui Kisikisi the demi god that he was angrily awoken by crowing of his father's rooster and he tried to kill it and the frightened fowl escaped from 'Eua to Tongatapu, but Maui Kisikisi kept hurling rocks at it, where this boulder, which is the largest one, would be the one that slaughtered the rooster, so that's the first story about it. The second one is we had some researchers that hypothesized that this large coral boulder, which is believed to be the largest tsunami rock in the world, was brought like 100 metres inland from surrounding reefs by massive tsunami that hit Tonga approximately thousands of years ago, so that was the monument that was unveiled just recently.
SELA JANE AHOLELEI - There were a number of people present at the unveiling this week. One of them was the Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. What brought him to this event?
FU - He had a special interest because he is a staunch supporter of preparation for tsunami, so personally for him it was quite a significant event and he noted that he heard the tale about this tsunami rock, but this was his first trip to Tonga and so it was personally quite a big event for him.
SJA - As the CEO of the Ministry of Tourism in Tonga, what does the Maui rock mean for Tonga's tourism?
FU - Yes... well we have now included the rock in our list of tourist sites and we have the monument there, so we will include it in the sites for tourists to visit, so we hope that people will be interested in visiting the site.
SJA - And for the locals in Tonga, what has been the reaction this week on the tsunami rock?
FU - They're quite pleased that attention has been drawn to this site and that's generating a lot of interest in that site being highlighted as a tourist site and the people's representative and the district officer were both there. They were quite supportive of what was being planned for the future.
