Stupid and confusing place names

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kingdragonfly

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#323114 28-Oct-2025 12:38

I thought I'd start a thread about stupid and confusing place names

I just discovered "Our Road" in Whangārei Heads, north-west of Whangārei.

and "Our Lane" in Kaiwaka. Auckland is about 81 km away.

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altered-ego
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#3428405 28-Oct-2025 12:47

Oh, "Our" Road, not "Our Road" Road ...

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

xpd

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#3428406 28-Oct-2025 12:53

I find these amusing....

Mangere Road in Otahuhu.

Maori Hut Road in Red Beach.

XPD / Gavin

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floydbloke

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#3428407 28-Oct-2025 13:04

Then there's this, that and the other streets. (Near Toronto in Canada, tried to hyperlink Google maps but it broke.)

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

MikeB4

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#3428415 28-Oct-2025 13:44

I love this one. Shooting Butts Road in Martinborough.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

gzt

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#3428418 28-Oct-2025 13:53

There are around 110 roads called Queen Street in NZ, and a similar number called King St. Around half that number for Princes St. Similar for Nelson St. There are multiple in Auckland region alone.

https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/on-the-streets-where-we-live

Queen St has to be the winner of that one. I'm sure the couriers have stories to tell.

kingdragonfly

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#3428471 28-Oct-2025 14:28

Don't ask the question to ChatGPT AI. It gave me a list of roads, which were almost all hallucinated, such as
"The Other Road - Whangarei area,"
"This Road near Levin"
"Washing Machine Hill Road (Taranaki)"
"Silly Hill Road, South Canterbury"

Nope, nope, nope and nope

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caffynz

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#3428472 28-Oct-2025 14:30

Slightly offtrack, but on topic regarding street names.

I recall an incident involving a friend; we were both invited to a party on Kingsland Terrace. She went to the same numbered building but on Kingsland Avenue (both streets in the same suburb).

About 30 minutes later, after happily chatting away and meeting new people, she realised that she knew no one at the party (i.e. no one she knew had arrived yet) and checked whose party it was. Oops. Wrong place! She then turned up at the right party and recounted her story to us all.

Amazing that two almost-exact same addresses were having birthday parties on the same evening! And neat that she was welcomed inside at the other party, even though no one there knew her! :D

HowickDota

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#3428486 28-Oct-2025 15:27

Not exactly the place name but repeating numbers along Great South Road.

There's a 1 Great South Road in Newmarket, Otahuhu, Papatoetoe, Manurewa and Papakura

scuwp

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#3428493 28-Oct-2025 15:54

HowickDota:

Not exactly the place name but repeating numbers along Great South Road.

There's a 1 Great South Road in Newmarket, Otahuhu, Papatoetoe, Manurewa and Papakura

Use to be in emergency services up there, that one always did our heads in! Also there are about 4 or 5 "Station Road" in the city. Defining the suburb was critical, but often got wrong.

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Behodar

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#3428495 28-Oct-2025 16:03

HowickDota:

Not exactly the place name but repeating numbers along Great South Road.

There's a 1 Great South Road in Newmarket, Otahuhu, Papatoetoe, Manurewa and Papakura

Earlier this year we booked a BnB in North Shore. I noticed that the same street name was used in West Auckland. To be sure I got the right place saved into my phone, I went to it on the map, clicked it, clicked "create contact"... then tested the contact and found it went to the wrong street. I think I put it in the Annoy or Brain Dead thread at the time :)

notesgnome

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#3428548 28-Oct-2025 17:51

Back in the UK, I used to go down a road called

Between Streets

We won't talk about Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma Gate in York... (which is round the corner from a road just called Pavement)

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SomeoneSomewhere

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#3428618 28-Oct-2025 23:20

Northland, Wellington vs Northland itself should be on the list.

"The Drive" and "The Terrace" apparently cause some confusion with certain GPSs.

MurrayM

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#3428625 29-Oct-2025 08:58

gzt: There are around 110 roads called Queen Street in NZ, and a similar number called King St. Around half that number for Princes St. Similar for Nelson St. There are multiple in Auckland region alone.

There must be an awful lot of Beach Street/Road's and Church Street/Road's too.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3428626 29-Oct-2025 09:01

Cambridge something and Oxford something are also very common.

River road too, maybe?

Scotdownunder

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#3428672 29-Oct-2025 09:13

There are three Hinemoa Streets in the Wellington region but 1 is on the waterfront and only has one building, Custom House, which NZ Post don’t show in their post code finder and don’t deliver to. Result, 14 years of misdirected mail (despite different postcode) and couriers trying to deliver stuff for business companies like Centreport to a Lower Hutt residential property.
I would love to persuade NZ Post to include the missing postcode / address in their postcode finder with message stating “no deliveries, use PO Box Numbers”.

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