Whakatane is pronounced fɒkəˈtɑːni in Maori and is a city in the Bay of Plenty where we are stopping off on the way to Gisborne, this holidays.
The town has a population of 18,000, which is a lot!
Around 40% have Māori ancestry.
Whakatane is the gateway to White Island (Whakaari), New Zealand's most active volcano, but we are saving our adventure there until Christmas.
Then I shall have story to tell my Uncle Bob!!
Whakatane has caused a stir on the internet, because it is censored by search engines (due to the pronunciation of the name).
Locally, the 'Wh' is pronounced as an 'F'.
The phenomenon of a name being blocked due to it being mistaken for an offensive term is known as the Scunthorpe Problem... and you know what that means!
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