The sign was arranged to make sure it was visible from a distance. Photo / Alan Gibson
The boss of Rotorua's tourist gondola and luge has challenged the rest of the country to build a bigger sign of support for Team New Zealand.
Last week the staff at Skyline Skyrides erected a huge NZL92 sign on a hillside near the top of the gondola.
The
sign is visible from several kilometres away and since racing began they have been getting up at the crack of dawn to create a running scoreboard of equal size.
Together, the NZL92 sign and the scoreboard stretch 50m from top to bottom.
General manager Neville Nicholson reckons it's the largest America's Cup sign in the country and doubts anyone can better the effort by his staff.
"They're all patriotic and support what's happening over in Valencia," he said yesterday. "Perhaps we can make it a competition [to build a bigger sign]."
After Team New Zealand's win in the third race yesterday, Skyline Skyrides workers took the gondola to the top of the hill as soon as it was daylight.
"It's no problem finding people to go up when we're winning, but if we start losing, it's going to be a little different," Mr Nicholson said.
Skyline Skyrides, which sits on the slopes of Mt Ngongotaha with views of Lake Rotorua, has a history of supporting New Zealand's America's Cup boats.
During the last competition in 2003, the 120 staff wore red socks and each gondola pod was decorated.
This year, they decided to do something different, hatching the idea for the sign during a "brainstorming session", and filling the building at the base of the gondola with a yacht and buzzy bees.
Seven workers were involved in laying out the NZL92 sign - six on the mountain and one with a radio at the bottom giving instructions to ensure the sign was readable.
"It was quite a lot of work to get it to look right from the distance," Mr Nicholson said.
Photographs had been sent to Team New Zealand and overseas visitors had commented on the sign, but the biggest reaction was from Rotorua.
"We've had many of our local people ringing up and congratulating us."
Workers planned to continue their dawn routine of updating the scoreboard, which like the sign is made from a hessian fabric that is stapled to the ground and easy to move.
Full coverage of the America's Cup from
nzherald.co.nz/americascup and
desktoptv.co.nz
