Email to Minister Chris Penk about glacier renaming

Posted by Patrick Lam on Monday, April 6, 2026

Context: there are NZ glaciers that have been historically misspelled: Brückner, Hesse, and Penck. There was a proposal to rename them, but it was denied by the responsible Minister, Chris Penk, with the rationale “we have managed for over a century”. reasons

Tēnā koe Minister Pench,

I was looking at some glacier names recently and found your decision from last October to not approve the correction of historical misspellings of the Brückner, Hesse, and Penck glaciers. I find that decision quite disappointing and the rationale unsatisfying. Just because we have managed for over a century is no reason for us to continue making the historical mistake; we have had a number of interested parties do the research to try to set the record straight. I sure would find it annoying if my name were to be misspelled.

Ngā mihi,

Patrick Lam