Mount Talau looks a bit like someone took a very tall cake and sliced the top completely flat. This flat summit is called a mesa, and it happens when soft rock around the outside erodes away over millions of years, leaving a harder cap of rock standing up on its own. Trees grow all the way to the very edge of the flat top, so walking up feels like moving through a forest until — pop — you step into sunshine and a view that goes on forever.
The path up Mount Talau is not long — most people reach the top in about 20 minutes of easy walking — but what you see when you get there is extraordinary. The harbour of Neiafu below is dotted with sailing boats, and beyond it the channels between islands wind and twist like a blue jigsaw puzzle. Local children often come up here after school to look out across the water.
The hill is protected as a national park, which means the forest around it is carefully looked after. Tongan flying foxes roost in the trees on the slopes, and you might hear the calls of lorikeets and other birds echoing up from the canopy. At sunrise or sunset the view turns pink and gold, and sailors in the harbour below sometimes take photos of Talau's silhouette reflected in the still water.