Customary landowners welcome Kaiteretere name change as part of Nelson Tenths' case

The spelling of the name of one of the most popular beaches at the top of the South Island has been changed to reflect its origins.

The name Kaiteriteri has been revoked by the New Zealand Geographic Board and replaced with the spelling Kaiteretere.

The change was part of legislation giving effect to the 'Nelson Tenths' settlement.

The Te Here ā Nuku (Nelson Tenths) Bill, which was passed in August, settled a historic land dispute that will see 3068 hectares, including the Kaiteriteri Recreation Reserve and part of the Abel Tasman Great Walk, returned to the original owners and a $420 million compensation payment.

Te Here ā Nuku Trust trustee Kerensa Johnston said Kaiteretere's corrected spelling was recognition of the customary landowners' language and tikanga, and an important step in a broader resolution process with the Crown.

She said place name misspellings were reasonably common, often happened by accident and became embedded in official documentation.

"The spelling as it was with the 'i' is incorrect," she said. "That's not a word that exists and so the significance really is just the correct spelling, the correct word.

"Now it will be about understanding the narrative that's behind that place and that coastline as a whole."

Johnstone said Kaiteretere and the area now known as the Abel Tasman National Park had been well occupied by whānau and hapū for centuries, and held cultural, spiritual and physical significance for Māori.

Archaeological evidence suggests there has been Maori occupation and use of the coastline for at least 500 years.

"It was there in 1841 that we first met with the representatives of the New Zealand Company and essentially agreed to the settlement of the Nelson area," Johnston said. "That's really the genesis of the Nelson Tenths."

In the 1830s, the Crown promised Māori at the top of the South Island that, if they sold 151,100 acres of land to the New Zealand Company, they would be able to keep one-tenth.

In 1845, a Crown grant stated that a tenth of all land used for the Nelson settlement - plus pā, wāhi tapu, urupā and cultivations owned by the whānau and hapū - would be reserved in a trust for the customary owners, but they instead received fewer than 3000 acres, which became known as the Nelson Tenths Reserves.

The New Zealand Geographic archives records that the spelling Kaiteriteri has been used on government records since 1859. Other documented spellings by government surveyors include Kaiteratera and Kaitiriteri.

Alexander Wyclif Reed's 1952 book The Story of New Zealand Place Names offered a description of the name Kaiteretere as 'kai: to eat' and 'teretere: to run or be spread about'.

"Some Māori were having a meal on the beach of an island in the bay, when they heard stones rolling through the bush behind them," the archive said. "Fearing an attack, they left in their canoes carrying their food with them and, on reaching Kaiteriteri Beach, returned hurriedly to their pā, eating their food as they went."

Johnston said there were different narratives about the history and meaning of Kaiteretere, and the trust had plans to share the stories with the wider community.

"Kaiteretere is actually just one part of that," she said. "There are other names of significant sites along that coastline that we want to bring back to life, so that's all part of the work that's ahead of us."

Johnstone said the overall response to the change had been positive, with people wanting to use the correct spelling and understand the origin of the name, although there had been some concerns raised from a commercial perspective about the impact of changes to branding and signage.

Johnston said the trust believed the changes could happen over time.

"This is certainly the first step, and we'll be making those changes ourselves in relation to the land and the businesses that we're operating over the next year," she said.

Last year, Conservation Minister Tama Potaka said the Department of Conservation had worked with Te Here ā Nuku Trust to ensure ongoing public access to the Abel Tasman, the Kaiteriteri Recreation Reserve and wider conservation areas that were special to New Zealanders.