As it prepares for its popular Spring Fling festival, Waipawa rolls out a mascot that has divided the small Central Hawke’s Bay town for 30 years. ‘I often get the blame from some people for the duck.’
Ohakune has the carrot, Paeroa has the fizzy bottle. Tīrau has corrugated animals, Taihape has a corrugated gumboot. And Gore and Rakaia have giant fish.
But Waipawa - for not immediately understandable reasons to outsiders - has a duck. Specifically, an extremely heavy, 2m-high concrete yellow duck named Pawa, which has divided some in the central Hawke’s Bay town for three decades.
“A lot of people want to see her as a permanent fixture; a lot never want to see her again,” a council spokeswoman told me yesterday.
A Radio Pacific poll in 2003 voted Pawa the ugliest town mascot in New Zealand.
“When I saw pictures of it, I had to agree [that] it is the worst town fiasco in the country. And what makes it worse is the hideous plinth it is sitting on,” then Radio Pacific host Paul Henry said.
“It wins hands down as the most offensive ornament in the whole of New Zealand.”
Now, if anyone can agree on one thing, it’s that Pawa is resilient - she has, after all, outlasted Radio Pacific.
But where once she sat in pride of place in Waipawa’s main street - as a permanent fixture - Pawa was yesterday out of public view in a local town yard.
She is about to be rolled out for Waipawa’s annual Spring Fling festival and specifically the 30th running of the headline Duck Race event - 1900 rubber ducks in a fundraising race down the Waipawa River - on October 11.
“We think she’s rather beautiful. We love her,” Central Hawke’s Bay district councillor Pip Burne said, as I caught up with her and Pawa on the Great New Zealand Road Trip yesterday.
Others have not been so kind - there is a lot of history.
“There really is no solution to this duck fiasco, we can write and complain about it, criticise other towns because they have monstrosities too, or just deal with the fact that it’s there,” said one newspaper letter writer in 2003.
“Honestly, I think it’s an eyesore. I’m amazed that no one has already cut it down, but it’s there and Paul Henry just made it nationwide knowledge.
“We do have an ugly duckling, it wasn’t meant to be our town icon, let’s just say it was left high and dry instead of focusing on more important issues that we are faced with as a community, they want to waste money, by setting up support groups and counselling for this duck that looks like a duckling.”
Another letter writer said: “Some people can take themselves far too seriously -getting upset with this ‘ugly’ label and wanting to get rid of the one thing that makes Waipawa distinctive.
“They don’t seem to appreciate that it is the ‘different-ness’ of the duck which makes it memorable and maybe even appealing. I have been to meetings in Napier, Hastings and even Palmerston North and have said that I was from Waipawa, to immediately have someone say ‘Waipawa - that’s the place with the big yellow duck - Why do you have a duck?’.”
The creator of the duck is appropriately named artist Jan Gosling.
She has a website that documents how feathers have flown for many years, ever since the 400kg Pawa was built to promote the town’s first Duck Race.
“The yellow duck is something I was asked to make by Waipawa Chamber of Commerce back in 1995,” Gosling writes.
“She sat on our main street for nearly 10 years and was removed when the council upgraded the road and footpath there, then decided the duck did not fit in with our new ‘look’.
“The duck was often controversial – but one thing I don’t think the council (or other knockers) could deny was that it got people’s attention and they knew that Waipawa was the town with the duck.
“I often get the blame from some people for the duck, and sometimes it is hard being taken seriously as an artist having made it – but I feel that the duck has cemented its place in Waipawa’s history."
Over the years, there have been petitions - one calling for the duck to be placed back on public view, another demanding that it stay in storage.
Back in 2004, then councillor Nicollette Brasell said: “I am glad the duck has finally come on the table, hopefully to be carved up.
“Most people I know certainly don’t want to be known as ‘the duck people’, so I am glad it is moving as it will not be an eyesore anymore.”
Burne says Pawa is popular whenever she comes out of storage for Duck Week. She has been reading up on the duck’s colourful history.
“It even went back to the council ... these days around the council table, obviously, we’re talking about critical infrastructure, but back in the late 90s, they were talking about whether Pawa should be in the high street of Waipawa.
“Maybe she’s best just kept in a shed and brought out once a year.”
Duck Race organiser Mark Drake - another local with a wonderfully appropriate name - believes “most people love Pawa”.
On the question of whether she deserves to be returned to a permanent spot, he says: “I’m not sure where Pawa would go, maybe not the main street. All the kids love Pawa, that’s the main thing. Pawa makes people happy”.
Drake has been organising the Duck Race for years. After the chamber’s initial efforts 30 years ago - the race was originally established to celebrate Waipawa’s 150th anniversary - the event now raises funds for Ronald McDonald House.
See Pawa, up close, for yourself when she is rolled out in Waipawa in the week leading up to the Duck Race on Saturday, October 11. You can watch racing for free, or spend $2 per duck to compete.
Ducks aside, there are almost 20 events that make up Waipawa’s Spring Fling festival in September and October.
Other highlights include a local production of The Wizard of Oz, daffodil walks, a spring market, silent movies, a homestead trail, high tea amongst the roses, a farm walk and a picnic in the peonies.
For more details see thespringfling.nz
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor.