What's in a name?

You have to love the names of some of the places here. Here a few doozies.

Whakatane (pronounced Fock-a-tawn-ee)
On my East Cape Trip with the girls, we had a marvelous time, and one of our stops was Whakatane. The first leg of the trip, I was in the back seat in the car, and I heard my friends and navigators up front say "We are going to Whakatane". (ummm. we are going to what?)





Lake Tekapu (take-a-poo):
On the Routeburn Track, Dave told me that he hiked up to Tekapu. (huh?) Beautiful lake, and I guess yes, maybe it is even nicer than the bathrooms of the hut.





Whakenewha (Fock-n-A-fa)
This is a nice reserve on the island. Great for picnics, cricket, windsurfing, and flying kites. Dave just went windsurfing yesterday and came back with a huge grin. It was a Whakenewha day.








Finally, this weekend I'm very excited to be going on a river trip with some great friends on the Whanganui River. We put in a place called Pipiriki (pee pee reek-ee) and get picked up down river at Whakahoro (fock-a-whore-o).
Oooh, there's supposed to be some rapids at Pipiriki, but I'm not sure I want to go swimming in it. The guide book recommends pulling out at Whakahoro, because it might be more rapids than we can handle. OK, this I've got to see! :-)