Taking the mickey

The Age finds literal mirth in New Zealand’s “quirky” place names travelling from the North Island town of Waipu, through several of the “whaka-” and on to Shag River, Pigroot and Cape Foulwind. “Also of entertainment value, but only if you’re in the know,” the article includes “is Tutaekuri (literally dog shit) River, Mount Tarawera (burning vagina) and Urewera (singed genitals).” “New Zealand also has the biggest mouthful. Taumata whaka tangi hanga koauau o tamatea turi pukakapi ki maunga horo nuku poka i whenua kitana tahu is acknowledged in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest name in common usage. The name of a 252-metre high hill in the North Island’s wine district, Hawke’s Bay, it translates as 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 loved one’. Unsurprisingly, the locals prefer to leave it at Taumata.”