Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a fish? Yes, it\u2019s a big trout. A giant, fibreglass trout, perched on a pole at the entrance to Gore, a Southland town famous for \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 the brown trout that live in Mataura River.<\/p>\n\n\n
The river\u2019s a spectacularly pretty spot, but you couldn\u2019t say that of the fibreglass trout, which is astonishingly ugly, as roadside attractions generally are. They tend towards the big, kitsch and colourful, but once they\u2019ve been around for a while, people seem to develop a fondness for them and eventually they reach icon status. Some of them, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n
Take the 7m high L&P bottle in Paeroa, at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula. The drink may now be owned by a multinational, but it\u2019s still seen as a Kiwi drink. And the Paeroa bottle, bar the odd paint job, hasn\u2019t been altered since it was erected in 1967, becoming, over time, a true New Zealand icon. Like a true roadside attraction, it was erected to promote the town, although its shape was originally nothing to do with the local drink (it was meant to represent a rocket, a couple of years ago before the first moon landing).<\/p>\n\n\n
Then there\u2019s Ohakune\u2019s carrot, erected in 1984 to celebrate the area\u2019s carrot production. It\u2019s somewhat dwarfed by Mt Ruapehu looming over the town, but is reputedly the world\u2019s largest carrot.<\/p>\n\n\n
Simon O\u2019Neill sent us a photo of a dinosaur built from recovered swamp wood at Raurimu. \u201cThe builder\u2019s intention was that this would be the first of a number of such beasts on this corner but it has been vandalised a couple of times since so he may have lost interest,\u201d Simon says.<\/p>\n\n\n
Down the road at Te Kuiti (shearing capital of the world) is a seven-metre high, seven-tonne model of a shearer, while at Tirau, on SHI, an entire building, the iSite, is in the shape of a sheepdog, constructed from corrugated iron. A few meters along the road is a shop in the shape of a sheep, also made from iron.<\/p>\n\n\n
Taranaki\u2019s contribution is a giant loaf of bread, in Manaia, \u201cNZ\u2019s bread capital\u201d and home of Yarrows Family Bakers while the Bay of Plenty\u2019s success at producing kiwifruit is honoured by a giant kiwfruit at the Kiwi360 fun park in Te Puke. (It\u2019s a variation on the road sign icon, being attached to a commercial operation as opposed to promoting the town itself.)<\/p>\n\n\n
Otago\u2019s stone fruit is represented by what Lonely Planet described as a \u201cspectacularly ugly giant fruit salad\u201d at the entrance to Cromwell. It\u2019s not inaccurate but it wouldn\u2019t be a true roadside attraction if it weren\u2019t garish and larger than life.<\/p>\n\n\n
Then there are the fish \u2013 the aforementioned trout in Gore, and a giant salmon at Rakaia, south of Christchurch on SH. Kaikoura apparently has a giant crayfish, but until someone sends us a photo, we can\u2019t confirm it.<\/p>\n\n\n
Not convinced? Look at Wikipedia\u2019s list of roadside attractions around the world, and suddenly big carrots and bottles will seem normal and organic, when you see they\u2019re up against things like the World\u2019s Largest Fake Nose and Glasses (Indiana), World\u2019s Largest Brick (Alabama), and World\u2019s Largest Basket (Ohio).<\/p>\n\n\n
Kiwi icons aren\u2019t limited to road signs, of course. If you\u2019re in Hawke\u2019s Bay, you must pay a visit to Pania of the Reef by the shore in Napier, and to see the sign for the longest place name in the world, Taumata whakatangi hangakoauau o tamatea turi pukakapiki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua kitanatahu, just south of Waipukura.<\/p>\n\n\n
In the Bay of Islands, Kawakawa\u2019s public toilets are a tourist stop off \u2013 they\u2019re designed by ex-pat Austrian Friedensreich Hundertwasser and constructed from recycled glass and reclaimed bricks New Zealand\u2019s sheep dog are also honoured by a statue outside the lovely Church of the Good Shepherd beside Lake Tekapo, in Canterbury, and someone with a sense of humour put up a giant sandfly at Greymouth, on the West Coast.<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ohakune’s carrot. Cromwell’s fruit fiesta. Te Kuiti’s shearer. Here’s a short guide to NZ’s roadside attractions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activity-adventure","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n