“That is left to the unknown really, because obviously we didn’t have any more time, and you know, I guess only time was able to tell,” he said of his connection with Emily.
“We’d only just started finding our feet that day, and it was kind of like a weird joke really, to couple up with someone and have them leave the same night,” he admitted.
Casa Amor came next, which Taku called “the best possible situation for me, and also the worst possible situation.”
While getting to know the Casa Amor girls, Taku found connections with both Aisha and Michela, and switched from one to the other in the space of a day, admitting that he felt a lot of pressure during Casa Amor, trying to get to know six women at once.
“I think I kind of choked a little bit, and that’s why there was a little bit of confusion between Aisha and Michela, because I never really had the luxury of choice” he explained.
“This time, we only had two days to get to know five women, and just with one girl, you need five days to actually get her number,” he laughed.
Despite the initial confusion, Michela did seem to be the perfect match for Taku, and he told the cameras he was leaving committed to her.
“She’s just very strong,” Taku shared when prompted about what drew him to Michela in the beginning. While he had more women to get to know, Michela had her heart set on him from the moment she walked in.
“For her to come in and have all her eggs in one basket, that intimidated me, but at the same time, that was very attractive too, having someone who knows what they want … and just goes out there and gets it.
“She’s quite the looker as well, too, so it made it easy,” he said.
The pair seemed to have a few bumps along the road to their relationship, with Taku explaining that it came down to pressure, and that things became easier when they settled in as friends.
“What I wish people saw was me and her having so much more fun just as friends,” Taku admitted.
“They were expecting us to be all lovey-dovey and all that, but I wanted … to take a step back because I wasn’t sure how I felt because of how quickly everything was going,” he reflected.
Despite his struggle to find love in the villa, Taku remained the favourite of Love Island Australia fans all throughout the season.
“I went for a bit of a walk to get coffee at my old workplace, and it was crazy, just the love and support was real, I wasn’t really expecting people asking for photos, it’s crazy, so I’m still trying to adjust,” Taku said of his first morning back in the real world, where he was met by his new fandom.
Australia voted Taku as their favourite Islander very early on in the piece, which was revealed to him on the show by host Sophie Monk.
“That was so weird for me, you know … even when I used to get awards for for footy, I always got very weird… I’ve always been the guy who supports other people,” he said.
“To be the centre of attention like that, that was pretty big.
“I was very grateful, because I actually let my hair down, I wasn’t pretending to be anyone else that I wasn’t, so yeah, that was amazing,” he admitted.
Taku’s friendly nature, and infectious laugh, meant he made friends very easily in the villa, especially with long-standing couple Chris and Zoe, who are also his pick to win the show.
“I love them … I actually want them to win,” he said.
“It’s not really that often that you see a relationship that’s just a match made in heaven, like Chris and Zoe, so I think the public will want something a little bit more relatable … but I’m going to have to say Chris and Zoe.”
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