Dec 12, 2025 A Windy Day at the “Longest Place Name in the World”
The longest title to a post on this blog! We attempted a bike ride this morning, riding south into the wind, but gave up and let the wind push us back to the B&B! We decided to take a road trip instead, to some remote beaches one and a half hours drive south. We reached Te Paerahi Beach near the tiny town of PÅrangahau and had a quick walk on the beach.
No wading in the surf today, we didn’t want to get sand-blasted!
We looked at the map (paper) and google maps and discovered that we were about a 15 minute drive from “the longest place name in the world”! So of course we had to go see it!
I won’t try to pronounce it or write it out! It’s actually the hill in the background.
According to several sources it translates to; “the summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the slider, climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one.”
We backtracked and headed over gravel roads to another beach, Blackhead Beach for a late lunch.
We enjoyed the view from the Blackhead beach campground and picnic area, with the colorful flowers blowing in the wind!