92 letters. Visitors climb the hill in four-wheel-drive vechicles. the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel
invites them to buy a 'Collectors' Longest Place Name Bottle of Hawkes Bay Chardonnay or Cab Merlot.
The hill used to be - Taumatawhakatangihangakouauauotamateaturipukakapikimaunga horonukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu (85 letters). That's a combination of the words, taumata (brow of a hill),
whakatangihanga (music making) koauau (flute), of),tamatea ( name of a famous chef), turi pukaka (bony knees),
piki maunga (climbing a mountain), horo (slip), nuku)move), pokai whenua (widely travelled), ki (to), tana (his),
tahu (beloved).
Hawkes Bay Tourism's Internet site says that Porangahau in New Zealand's South Island, "boasts the longest place
name in the world, officially entered in the 'Guiness Book of Records." That stretches the name 92 letters.
It says the name means "The place
where Tamatea, the man with the big
knees, who slid, climbed, and
swallowed mountains, known as land
eater, played his flute to his beloved
one."
