Granity band rotunda with its giant sized chess board marked on the floor, the pieces can be obtained from the shop next door. Thr renovation of the rotunda was made possible by a grant from the NZ Tourism Facility by the Hon Murray McCully Granity is a small town on the West Coast, South Island, NZ. It is squeezed between the Tasman Sea to the west and steep forested cloud-shrouded mountains to the immediate east. The town is the largest in this sparsely populated part of New Zealand. Long known as a coal mining town, the population has declined as the industry has waned and several neighbouring towns have now become ghost towns. The name "Granity" was given to the town by gold prospectors, in reference to the large quantity of granite in the area.