After 125 years, the eighth wonder of the world has popped up in Rotorua again.
A 19-tonne stone model of the Pink and White Terraces, commissioned as a display for the Quarry New Zealand Conference at Rotorua's Energy Events Centre this week, is sitting in the carpark.
The famous Pink and WhiteTerraces, visited by thousands of tourists, were believed to have been destroyed during the Mt Tarawera eruption on June 10, 1886, when more than 200 people were killed and the landscape was changed forever.
Event communications adviser Carol Delaney said Hinuera Natural Stone and carver Mario Kerkhoff were commissioned to chisel a large stone carving for the conference and with the find of the Pink and White Terraces earlier this year in Lake Rotomahana, it was fitting to have a carving of the terraces.
"It was by chance the terraces were found a few weeks before the carving was to start. We thought it was quite topical," she said.
"It's quite amazing. It's hard to believe it was once a rock."
The rock the model was built from originally weighed 30 tonnes but by the time it was fully carved into shape, it ended up 19 tonnes.
When the conference ended tomorrow the large stone model would be gifted to Rotorua, Mrs Delaney said.
