Why has NZL 3 regions and not anymore 2 as it was before?

Question

When I visited NZ in 2018 I had a lot of founds in the southern and in the northern island. As I also visited all regions in NZ - like Otago, Nelson, Gisborne or Taranaki, I reached a coverage of 100% for the North Island, 100% for the South Island, and because NZ was divided into these 2 territories I also reached a coverage of 100% for NZ as the whole country.

Some months later - I cannot remember exactly when that happened - I found out that there was a change and a third territory, called Chatham Islands, had been introduced into the NZ territory. I had not been there and therefore my coverage for NZ changed to 66%, as one third was missing.

When I looked more precisely onto Chatham Islands I found out that there were only very little caches and not many geocachers ever visited this small island. So I think it is not correct to give this small island the status of one third of New Zealand.

My question now: 

- Who was responsible for this change in territory division? 

- Why did that happen? Is there anybody to give so much attention to such a little island? 

- And last question: Why???

Any answers are welcome, best would be to get in contact with the person responsible for the territory division (especially in NZL).

Answer 1

Broadly, the reason is that Geocaching.com considers the Chatham Islands to be a region of New Zealand. You can see this by editing a geocache listing that you own, setting the country to "New Zealand", and then noting the options that show up under "State or Province":

Comments

Okay, I can follow this. But the question is:
- who at geocaching.com considered to give that "region" attribute to the Chatham Islands?
Geocaching.com points to responsibles in NZL, and NZL reoresentatives to not evenknow that.
Now the question is simple: Who at geocaching decided this and why!

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Possibly they mean the New Zealand reviewers, but I don't know.

That said, the logic seems straightforward to me. The islands is a part of New Zealand, and they are administered independently of the North or South islands. Therefore, they are a region which is neither the North Island nor the South Island. Smallness is not a reason to not give them attention.

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Interesting - though if you are asking who at GC dot com made this decision - shouldn't you ask on the forums there - it is unlikely anyone at PGC will know since they are not directly linked with GC dot com

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After receiving no answer from any representatives at geocaching.com in Seattle or NZL I can find out that this decision fell from sky. But it found a way into the geocaching.com rules and regulations, and this seems to be a similar process as the one described as "fell from sky".