Ngongotaha locals have say on lightning bolt

EYE-SORE OR ATTRACTION? Progress Ngongotaha want to bring White Lightning back to the township. PHOTO/FILE

The Rotorua District Council this week decided to allow Progress Ngongotaha to try and resurrect "White Lightning" - the old lightning bolt sculpture that once sat in the Rotorua CBD.

Progress Ngongotaha chairwoman Lynn Benfell said she would begin consulting the Ngongotaha community to ask if they wanted to help restore the sculpture with help from the original artist Terry Stringer.

A council estimate of $15,000 was given just to repair the tiles, but Mrs Benfell thinks she can raise enough money to get the job done, with some help from the Ngongotaha community.

She said the sculpture, donated to the district by the now defunct Rotorua Area Electricity Authority in the mid to late 1980s, would be a good fit for the township.

She said the first power lines from the Arapuni hydro-electric power station came into Ngongotaha before heading into Rotorua back in the early 1930s.

The Rotorua Daily Post asked some of the township's residents what they thought of the idea. Click the image above for the video.