Hokitika kicks sand at name-change bid

Enterprise Hokitika wants to promote the beach as a tourist attraction. Photo / Simon Baker

What's in a name? Plenty, if you ask residents of Hokitika, who have rallied against a proposal to rename the small town on the West Coast.

Residents turned out in numbers to a heated public meeting this week to decry the suggested renaming of the town to Hokitika Beach. The overwhelming opposition was enough to force the proposal off the table, but the promotions group that suggested it is not giving up completely.

Enterprise Hokitika chairman Allen Hurley said he would instead seek to have the town's Central Business District named Hokitika Beach.

The idea of a name change had been around for a while and Mr Hurley said people he had canvassed felt it would be good for promoting the town - one of the few with a CBD built on a wilderness beach in New Zealand.

"It's a huge marketing advantage for us I believe."

Feedback from visitors enthralled by the beach views "reinforces to us that we believe we are on the right track in trying to market Hokitika as Hokitika Beach".

"In saying that, the meeting didn't find favour at all with changing the name. Hokitika is an iconic name - it actually means in Maori 'place of return', and if you add beach to that I guess it changes the whole fundamental nature of the name, which is not what we want."

Long-time resident Brian Anderson, 70, said the town was known worldwide as Hokitika and should stay that way.

"It's only the businessmen's association that are [calling] for it, and they are not all for it either. I'd say there would be at least 85 to 90 per cent [of residents] against it."

The town's beach was not even suitable for swimming, Mr Anderson said.

"If they want people to come to the beach, all they have got to do is put signs up on the posts ... without changing the name."

Mr Hurley said a questionnaire would be sent to the town's businesses to get their views on naming the CBD.

If this alternative proposal was pursued, Mr Anderson said there would be more trouble for those pushing for it.

"They certainly should have got the message."