The New Zealand Geographic Board is part of the New Zealand Geographic Board Act 2008, and was previously part of the New Zealand Geographic Board Act 1946. Although an independent institution, it is responsible to the Minister for Land Information. It has authority over geographical and hydrographic names within New Zealand and its territorial waters. This includes naming small urban settlements, localities, mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, harbours and natural features and may include researching local Māori names. In the Ross Sea region of Antarctica it has named many geographical features. It has no authority to alter street names, a local body responsibility, or the name of any country. The Board has authority over official placenames only, and most placenames, including most towns and cities, ports and bodies of water have not been mentioned in legislation or validated by treaties, and so are not official. The New Zealand Geographic Board secretariat is part of Land Information New Zealand and provides the Board with administrative and research assistance and advice.
The New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised, and names and alternative names were formalised in 2013. This set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island or Te Waipounamu. For each island, either its English or Māori name can be used, or both can be used together.
2016 renaming of landmarks
In 2015, a member of the New Zealand public wrote to the New Zealand Geographic Board complaining about three place names in Canterbury in the South Island that use the word "nigger": Nigger Hill, Niggerhead, and Nigger Stream. A public consultation was set up with 223 to 61 responses in favour of changing the name. Following consultations with the Ngāi Tahu tribe who reside in the area, the names Kānuka Hills and Tawhai Hill were suggested as replacements. This was in reference to the Kānuka and Tawhai tree. The stream was somewhat more complicated; it was originally proposed to be renamed to "Steelhead Stream", but eventually the Māori name for the Carex secta, Pūkio Stream, was favored instead. The proposed change of name was accepted with the Land Information New Zealand Minister Louise Upston stating "These names reflect a time when attitudes towards this word were markedly different to what they are now. It is a word that is clearly offensive to most people today, so I am pleased to make this decision." The name change was made official on 15 December 2016 after being published in the New Zealand Gazette.
