Name for new lake gets a minister’s landslide vote
New Zealand’s ‘‘newest lake’’ has been officially named after three years of debate that ended with the Geographic Board unable to settle on a name and referring the matter to the land information minister.
The 13-hectare lake was formed in February 2018 after a huge landslide dammed the Mangapōike River, near Gisborne.
The lake was discovered after a top-dressing pilot spotted it on February 28 and told Mangapōike Farm owner Dan Jex-Blake about it.
Jex-Blake, the fourth-generation owner of the farm, didn’t fully appreciate the scale of the landslide until he flew over it a short time later.
He couldn’t quite believe what he saw. Where there was once a grasscovered bluff was now a vertical wall, a massive scar of debris and mud, and where there was once the clear-flowing Mangapōike River was a fast-growing lake.
The lake is bounded by JexBlake’s farm and also Paparatu Station, owned by Te Whakaari Incorporation, and is not accessible to the public.
Jex-Blake and the Gisborne District Council began referring to the lake as Lake Mangapōike in the months after it was formed, but in 2019 Te Whakaari decided it should be called Lake Te Horonui – or ‘‘the great landslide’’.
In April 2021 the New Zealand
Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa accepted Te Whakaari’s proposal. But in July 2021, after hearing five objections, the board decided instead to publicly consult on the name Lake Mangapōike, which was backed by respected local historian Mere Whaanga.
The board felt Te Horonui had no ancestral connection or historical relevance, whereas the lake had been formed by Mangapōike River waters.
In December last year Te Whakaari asked the board to reinstate Te Horonui.
Te Whakaari said Lake Mangapōike had not been proposed by mana whenua, ‘‘who have authority and ownership of the lake and the land it is on so have the right to name it’’. Te Whakaari also felt that Te Horonui described the landslide and there would be no lake had it not occurred. On the other hand the Mangapōike name was firmly entrenched in surrounding lands, with its own history and mana.
The board received 10 submissions in favour of Lake Mangapōike and four in opposition. In July it concluded both names had equal merit and it encouraged further local discussion until a preference emerged. In the meantime it would ask the Minister for Land Information, Damien O’Connor, to confirm that no name would be assigned to the lake until those discussions proceeded.
On Monday the board announced it would be named Lake Te Horonui. O’Connor had settled on the name after considering all submissions.
‘‘The lake needed a name and Lake Te Horonui, meaning ‘the great landslide’, is a unique name that describes the significant natural event that created the lake,’’ he said.