D-Day for Masterton welcome posts

Five replacement symbols have been completed and are ready for installation on poles set at the entrances to Masterton. FILE PHOTO

Today is D-Day for erecting the long-awaited pou at the entrances to Masterton, weather permitting.

Masterton District Council spokesman Sam Rossiter-Stead said yesterday everything is now in place for the pou to welcome visitors to town with five replacement symbols completed.

The five will replace those that were made too small but the undersized ones will not be wasted.

Instead they will be erected at three secondary entranceways to town as part of stage 2 of the pou programme.

Those entrances will be on Te Ore Ore Road, Te Whiti Road and Akura Road.

Mr Rossiter-Stead said everything has now been arranged including a blessing of the pou by iwi but everything hinges on the weather.

He said people will be pleased to know the symbols to be erected on the celebratory gateways to town at both the southern and northern ends are now all of a good size and "the eels are now swimming downstream, instead of up river."

In order to grace the poles with the symbols the council has hired the largest cranes available locally, he said.

The designs include aircraft, cars, birds, the sun, mountains, rivers, bees and iwi symbolism.