A handwritten note from the nineteenth century has confirmed the correct spelling of Milford Track’s highest point.

Minister for Land Information Damien O’Connor accepted in June the New Zealand Geographic Board’s recommendation to officially change the name of Mackinnon Pass to Omanui / McKinnon Pass.

Submissions on the proposed change were called for last year. It was noted that the pass had been named, albeit incorrectly, after explorer Quintin McPherson McKinnon.

Born in Scotland in 1851, McKinnon was one of the first Europeans to discover the Milford Track route in 1888. He became a tourist guide and mail-runner on the track, and died in 1892 after his boat was wrecked crossing Lake Te Anau.

The Geographic Board said it confirmed the correct spelling of McKinnon from a signature on a handwritten note and from marriage and birth certificates.

The original Māori name for the pass has been added.

“The pass was first identified and named Omanui [the great running/escape] by Ngāi Tahu, who used the Milford Track route to transport food from the fiords,” board chairperson Anselm Haanen said.

Fiordland’s Lake Mackinnon has also been corrected to Lake McKinnon. There was no known historical Māori name for the lake, Haanen said.