![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JO9UEX_Piripai_sign_jpg.jpeg\")
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\nA sign on a Piripai property expresses the feeling of some local residents about the name of Coastlands which, although incorrect, seems to have become stuck in administrative databases.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n
People living in areas of Whakat\u0101ne district they know as Piripai, P\u0101roa and Poroporo say they’ve had enough of being grouped under the generic name of Coastlands.<\/p>\n
Piripai tangata whenua Pearly Sullivan, Margie Biddle and Billy Keepa say having their whenua renamed Coastlands erodes both their people’s identity and connection with the land, as well as the land’s history.<\/p>\n
As well as being incorrect, they say it is a name that touches on old wounds among some members of hap\u016b, Ng\u0101ti Hokop\u016b and Ng\u0101i Taiwhakaea.<\/p>\n
Coastlands Beachside Estate is a residential subdivision developed at Piripai, started in the 1970s by Lysaght Developments. It covers a 1.36 square kilometre area at the end of Keepa Road.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sullivan, who has lived on Keepa Road all of her life, said she remembers watching the trucks shifting tonnes of sand from the development past her house during the early 1970s and taking topsoil from the southern end of Keepa Road to create the sections there.<\/p>\n
With its proximity to \u014cpihi Whanaungakore urupa, some considered that land to have been wahi tap\u016b.<\/p>\n
“We were so humble, we just allowed them to do it. There’s another name some people use for that development. They call it Ghostlands,” she said.<\/p>\n
For these three women, Piripai is the name of the area.<\/p>\n
Their marae, Te Hokowhitu a T\u016b is at Piripai, a M\u0101ori translation of the Biblical Macedonian town of Philippi, where the Apostle Paul formed the first Christian church in Europe.<\/p>\n
It is where Ng\u0101ti Hokop\u016b crossed the river from Whakat\u0101ne to grow their kai, and where young men gathered for karakia before going off to fight in two world wars.<\/p>\n
It is land confiscated in the Raupatu of the 1890s, with some returned early last century.<\/p>\n
However, when residents at Piripai, or their marae or kura receive any communication that uses the NZ Post Addresses and Postcodes database to form addresses, the suburb given is “Coastlands”.<\/p>\n
![\"Members](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JO9UEX_E5984___9_jpg.jpeg\")
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\nMembers of Ng\u0101ti Hokop\u016b and Ngai Taiwhakaea living in Piripai and P\u0101roa are fed up with their whenua being referred to as \u201cCoastlands\u201d.
\nPhoto: LDR \/ Diane McCarthy\n<\/p>\n
This includes any mail from central or local government organisations or businesses, such as rates invoices, electoral forms, or electricity bills.<\/p>\n
They said Keepa Road, a name that is part of their whakapapa, is sometimes referred to as “Coastland’s Road”.<\/p>\n
“It’s terrible. How did this happen? That’s what I’d like to know,” Keepa said.<\/p>\n
The same issue has been noted in parts of P\u0101roa and Poroporo, with Coastlands being used for a large area west of Whakat\u0101ne township, as far as the golf club and south as far as Fortune’s Road.<\/p>\n
This is despite Coastlands not being an official name for any of these areas according to the New Zealand Geographic Board (NZGB).<\/p>\n
NZ Post general manager Matt Geor acknowledged the significance of place names to mana whenua and local communities and would deliver mail addressed to Piripai.<\/p>\n
“NZ Post is required to use official place names, as set by local councils, LINZ and NZGB.<\/p>\n
“Having said that, we do recognise some alternative place names.”<\/p>\n
Geor said NZ Post recognised four suburb names that could be used interchangeably with Coastlands: Awakeri, Piripai, Poroporo and Thornton.<\/p>\n
“This ensures we can deliver mail to the correct address, even if a sender has not used the official name.”<\/p>\n
Despite this, NZ Post’s online Address and Postcode Finder changes the suburb name to Coastlands whenever an address is typed in.<\/p>\n
“As Coastlands is the official place name in this area, our post code finder defaults to this as the alternate to RD1. However, if a sender addressed an item to a recipient in ‘Piripai, Whak\u0101tane 3191’ our driver would still be able to deliver it to the correct address.<\/p>\n
“To have Piripai recognised as the official place name, we recommend approaching the New Zealand Geographic Board and Whakat\u0101ne District Council.”<\/p>\n
![\"Unofficial](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JO9UEX_Coastlands_Map_jpg.png\")
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\nAlthough the New Zealand Geographic board does not record Coastlands as an official name, the LINZ Suburbs and Localities dataset defines its boundaries, which informs Google Maps, NZ Post, the Electoral Roll and emergency services.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n
How do you change a place name?<\/p>\n
A LINZ spokesperson said anyone can make a proposal to the NZGB to have a place name made official, but this would not necessarily change how addresses were structured.<\/p>\n
New Zealand’s addressing system is not based on the NZGB’s Gazetteer of place names, which lists Coastlands as a “recorded but unofficial name” alongside Piripai, P\u0101roa and Poroporo, but on a second dataset, administered by LINZ called the NZ Suburbs and Localities dataset.<\/p>\n
This dataset underpins not only postal addressing but also the electoral roll and emergency services location data.<\/p>\n
The database was created by Fire and Emergency New Zealand in 2005 to assist emergency first responders to quickly locate an emergency call.<\/p>\n
It was transferred to LINZ in June 2023. Anyone may request a change to suburb or locality name or boundary by contacting the relevant local authority or directly through emailing addresses@linz.govt.nz<\/p>\n
Local councils, Fire and Emergency New Zealand and NZ Post can make the request through a restricted online portal.<\/p>\n
A review panel with representatives from relevant local authorities (if they wish), NZGB, Emergency Services, M\u0101ori-Crown Relations, NZ Posts, Stats NZ and LINZ meets three times a year to decide whether to accept the request.<\/p>\n
Whakat\u0101ne District Council has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n
Thousands of unofficial M\u0101ori place names<\/p>\n
The Gazetteer of New Zealand records 910 unofficial place names in the Whakat\u0101ne district, including Coastlands, Piripai and P\u0101roa.<\/p>\n
This is the second highest in New Zealand after the Far North district, which has 1682, and there are several thousand throughout the country, most of them M\u0101ori names.<\/p>\n
Ng\u0101 Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa – New Zealand Geographic Board, the government entity controlling place names is progressing a fast\u2011track programme to make some of these names official.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Toit\u016b Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand, which provides administrative services to the board, said the programme was focused initially on M\u0101ori place names that were already widely used, where there were no alternative names, and the board considered there was likely to be no public objection.<\/p>\n
The board worked with local authorities, mana whenua and official te reo M\u0101ori translators to ensure names were correct before making them official.<\/p>\n
The next batch scheduled is the Far North District, while Whakat\u0101ne district has not yet been scheduled, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The board prioritises its work on names proposed through Treaty settlements and standard process proposals submitted by the public.<\/p>\n
Other work is progressed as resourcing allows.<\/p>\n
Coastlands, which is not an official name, would not be considered for fast\u2011track approval, as it did not meet the criteria.<\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sign on a Piripai property expresses the feeling of some local residents about the name of Coastlands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-437952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}