The idea was, according to Falconer, to make a statement of "something strong and conspicuous". In addition to the bollards' aesthetic qualities, they would "prevent people driving over the roundabout, and they help keep pedestrians safe".
Havelock North's "artistic, expressive community", he stated, would appreciate the unusual bollards, which normally take the shape of small poles.
While that might have been so, this was lost on a number of Havelock North people, and a prominent New Zealand artist, and then resident of Haumoana, Dick Frizzell.
"The bottom line is, they're bad design. It's a balls-up, the whole thing," Frizzell was reported as saying.
Frizzell suggested there was a positive to the "pathetic petals" – they were good for giving visitors from Auckland a laugh.
Another Haumoana resident, Lyn Williams, also disliked the pods, offering a "service prize" of $1000 for anyone who could dig one up (no one, it appears, took up the offer).
Some great photo opportunities arose when blow-up aliens appeared one morning next to the pods, suggesting they were eggs which hatched aliens.
Taking it all in his stride, Falconer said, "I've chuckled about the blow-up aliens, and Mr Williams from Haumoana about digging up the pods."
It wasn't all negative feedback, Falconer reported, as "many supportive phone calls from residents of the town, telling him to ignore the knockers".
Hastings mayor at the time, Lawrence Yule, said the pods had divided the Yule household, as he didn't mind them, but his (first) wife had a different opinion.
Removing them, he said, was not an option, and stated, as did Falconer, that significant community consultation had taken place.
Yule said, "These pods cost a lot of money to put in and I'd be very reluctant to take them out."
Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Tim Gilbertson entered the fray, and offered a loan of Waipawa's yellow duck to sit in the middle of the roundabout to take the heat off the pods in a gesture of "solidarity and comradeship".
Gilbertson "thought the relocation of the iconic duck would take the heat off the pods, and Havelock North residents were welcome to look after her for a while".
Asked if he would take the pods out of Havelock North's hands, he replied he didn't want a bar of them, and "he didn't want to swap pods for poultry".
The duck offer, not surprisingly, wasn't actioned.
Both Frizzell and Williams offered alternatives. Williams suggested a fountain and Frizzell a "wine compass design". However, nothing obviously came of these.
Falconer, in the midst of all this, urged patience as there was still lavender to grow around the bollards, and in six months' time their effect would be softened.
In 2011 a vehicle hit a pod on the roundabout, flipped twice and landed upside down on the roundabout. The driver suffered minor injuries.
A witness to the accident said, "Locals had always grizzled about the pods, but in this case they had stopped the vehicle travelling through and prevented anyone being seriously hurt."
Nearly 15 years after the pods' introduction, in 2018 a nearly 4m high bronze cast sculpture (including plinth) entitled The Garden 2002 by Paul Dibble was installed facing the roundabout.
The statute was funded by MTG and the Mills family Trust.
The bronze sculpture of a woman's lower torso, golden apple and falling leaf created some controversy (especially the torso bit).
Its artistic representation offended long-time letter writer to the editor, Margaret Burgess, who said, "I'm not keen on nudity of any sort in public places. I know in earlier centuries there were a lot of nude statutes around, but I don't see that there is a place for it."
Another said it was "an odd thing to put in such a visible spot".
Even art experts disagreed, with one saying it was "inappropriate and offensive", and another said its depiction of nudity was "seriously abstract".
As Lawrence Yule defended the pods, his successor, Sandra Hazelhurst, stated the sculpture was a "very welcome addition to the stunning works already on display in the village".
As did the "pods", the Dibble statute appears to have now blended unconsciously into the fabric of Havelock North.
Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a contract researcher and commercial business writer of Hawke's Bay history. Follow him on facebook.com/michaelfowlerhistory
