Storm on many lamp posts

Recently it was announced that road names will be in English and Te Reo. Immediately this was criticised as a waste of money by the National Party opposition. That Te Tiriti Waitangi was and is about an equal partnership is being ignored in gavour of appealing to people who would never vote for the Labour or Green parties.

Manuka Road goes off from Woodlands Park Road into a small area of streets all with a Maori name, before coming out on Hollywood Avenue. (It will be fascinating to see how that is translated into Te Reo.) Woodlands Park is the area around here. So there is almost certainly a name given by the Tangata Whenua; a name which will reflect something important to those who came before, or a revered ancestor or ....

That Te Reo is part of our lives is exemplified by Manuka Road. Manuka was called Tea Tree by colonists, but that is now rarely used. Manuka is a word in both Te Reo and English, with the same meaning.