New Zealand’s biggest fish is back where it belongs, shimmering on State Highway One.
Rakaia’s iconic salmon sculpture has been undergoing a refresh for the past month, at the expert hands of its creator, Christchurch artist Phil Price.
Price was commissioned for the piece in 1990: “The year I came out of university, so I was a fresh sculpture graduate and got my first sculpture job”.
The 11m work has been seen by millions of eyeballs since then – surely making Price the ‘most viewed’ artist in his class.
“What everybody wanted to be was a proper artist being shown in galleries and things. I wanted to make big objects; I wanted to make a business making big objects.
“I think it was cooler to be making contemporary art and making conceptual art and doing installations and getting invited to curated exhibitions and things, you know? Not making a giant fish on a stick. I don’t care,” says Price, laughing.
The “fish on a stick” had been commissioned by the local Lions Club when the people of Rakaia decided the town needed a memorable icon that would put the town on the map. They decided on a giant salmon, which would pay homage to the nearby Rakaia River and its world-class salmon fishery.
“We just set out and did it and there was a great deal of community support and sponsorship.”
The Lions Club at the time they were delivering telephone books and selling swedes out of trailers on the highway to help pay for it. It’s hard to imagine now.
This time around, there has also been an enormous amount of goodwill with local companies Tarbotton Land & Civil, S&J Piloting Service Ltd and Ashburton Crane Hire all making significant contributions.
Uplifting and transporting the sculpture from Rakaia to Price’s workshop and back again has been a huge task.
The return leg took place early on Saturday morning.
The original cost of the artwork was $44,893 when it was installed in 1991 – 35 years later the cost of its makeover is reportedly six to seven times as much.
The fibreglass exterior was repaired, repainted and refinished - before being returned to its base.
There is some conjecture over the size of the fish – Price says 12m but the plaque next to the sculpture says 11m. Whatever its length, it’ll sit higher than before with the base that it sits on extended.
It is also significantly larger than the other famous SH1 fish – Gore’s brown trout. Research suggests it is NZ’s biggest fish, though Price can’t say for sure.
“I don’t even know whether there are bigger ones. I mean, I don’t even know whether there are other ones,” says Price.
It was his last big fish.
“I was just keen not to be the big animal man, so I didn’t, I didn’t really do any more or advertise to do any more of that kind of thing.”
Refurbishing his most viewed creation has also given Price the opportunity to put his name on the work that he still gets a kick out of driving past.
“Well, you kind of have to drive past it on SH1, more times than I could count, I think. It is an icon and it’s kind of beautiful in a way, I mean the form of a fish is quite a lovely thing for a sculptor.”
Mike Thorpe is a senior journalist for the Herald, based in Christchurch. He has been a broadcast journalist across television and radio for 20 years and joined the Herald in August 2024.