Jack Marsden Mayer is renowned for his driftwood sculptures of animals - horses, kiwi, moa, prehistoric monsters, you name it, he has always found just the right pieces of driftwood to make it.
His T-Rex stands at Raurimu as eye-catching testament to his vision, patience and meticulous accuracy. Jack works out of a large studio in Bedford Ave in Whanganui.
Two such pieces of sculpture - a chicken and a rooster - were supposed to be part of the great fundraiser art auction held at NZ Glassworks on the Saturday of the final weekend of Artists Open Studios. Unfortunately, they didn't make it. They were stranded, flightless, in Auckland.
"I had taken them to a shop up there," says Jack. Then they went to a gallery, then to an art centre in Takapuna.
Plans to get them back to Whanganui for the art auction went awry so Kathy Cunningham of the Whanganui Events Trust got in touch with the good people at Air Chathams.