Hawkes Bay in New Zealand is believed to have the world's longest place name:
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipuka-
kapimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuaakitanarahu.
The world's longest place name, if indeed this is the world's longest, is the name given by the local Maori people, Ngati Kere, to a hill to celebrate the eponymous ancestor Tamatea Pokai Whenua. It is 305 metres high, close to Porangahau, south of Waipukurau in southern Hawkes Bay.
The place name is translated as the "place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as land-eater, played his flute to his loved one."
For ease of use, it is shortened to Taumata.
The New Zealand Geographic Placenames Database, maintained by Land Information New Zealand, records the name as "Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu," a hill at 40.3480 S, 176.5321 E.
