One of the burning questions we had after arriving was how to pronounce the name of the town where we live, Hawera. As it turns out, it's complicated and it depends on who you ask.
If you ask a Maori person, the usual answer is ha-WED-ah. A person from English descent will usually pronounce it HA-wer-ah, with the last two syllables run closely together. I normally use the Maori version unless I get a confused look from the person I'm speaking to, at which point I switch to the other version.
Our running joke is that you can pronounce it pretty much any way you want and somebody nearby is bound to correct you.
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