Mr Williamson's decision will bring to an end almost three years of debate about the appropriateness of the name. In August last year, the New Zealand Geographic Board recommended the 2307m peak between the Remarkables and the Hector Mountains should be called Te Kohua, despite strong opposition.
The board had consulted the local iwi about the name, but not the Central Otago District Council. Te Kohua was named after the three-legged cooking pot Ngai Tahu chief Reko was given for guiding Otago farmer Nathanael Chalmers through the Nevis Valley in 1853, the board said.
The name was suggested by Arrowtown resident Bev Noble, in response to an earlier suggestion to the board the mountain be named Hillary Peak. When approached by the Otago Daily Times yesterday, she declined to comment on Mr Williamson's decision.
Opponents of the name included Central Otago Mayor Tony Lepper and two district councillors, Neil Gillespie and Gordon Stewart. Mr Lepper and Cr Stewart climbed most of the way up the peak in early June and met Mr Williamson in July to express their views about the nameThe following month, Mr Williamson asked the Central Otago District Council for its preferred choice of name and what mandate it had for that opinion. Results from a council survey which attracted 278 responses favoured the names Nevis Peak or Karearea, after the native falcon. Te Kohua gained 28 votes.
"This process has highlighted a number of unnamed geographic features in the area and generated a number of different potential names, which had varying levels of support amongst the local authority, local iwi and the community," Mr Williamson said yesterday.
He had "invited" the board to consider working with the district council and Ngai Tahu on proposals for naming geographic features in the area. Any proposals would be considered formally by the board and go through the same process as the Te Kohua name.
Mr Lepper was delighted with Mr Williamson's decision.
"I've already been on the phone with the New Zealand Geographic Board today, who have asked for a round-table discussion with the council and Ngai Tahu and, of course, we would love to be part of that process. That meeting will probably happen some time in the new year, " he said.
"It was a great decision by Mr Williamson and a victory for the people of Central Otago. We had concerns about the process by which the name was chosen and this time we're included in the process."
Cr Stewart who set the ball rolling three years ago by suggesting the peak be called Hillary Peak, said "sanity has prevailed, in the long run.""We're back to square one as far as the name is concerned, but our beef was about the system and how the Te Kohua name was chosen, and the minister's suggested some changes to that process, so it's a good result. "
