The Country
  • The Country home
  • Latest news
  • Audio & podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life
  • Listen on iHeart radio

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • Coast & Country News
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Horticulture
  • Animal health
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life

Media

  • Podcasts
  • Video

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whāngarei
  • Dargaville
  • Auckland
  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Hamilton
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Te Kuiti
  • Taumurunui
  • Taupō
  • Gisborne
  • New Plymouth
  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Whanganui
  • Palmerston North
  • Levin
  • Paraparaumu
  • Masterton
  • Wellington
  • Motueka
  • Nelson
  • Blenheim
  • Westport
  • Reefton
  • Kaikōura
  • Greymouth
  • Hokitika
  • Christchurch
  • Ashburton
  • Timaru
  • Wānaka
  • Oamaru
  • Queenstown
  • Dunedin
  • Gore
  • Invercargill

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / The Country

Now this really is a fish

Northland Age
27 Apr, 2017 04:00 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Paihia has a new tourist attraction.

Paihia has a new tourist attraction.

Gore has a leaping trout, Ohakune its giant carrot, Taihape a gumboot. And now Paihia has joined the list, thanks to the Fuller family, who have donated a life-size leaping marlin to the town.

The four-metre marlin was unveiled on Saturday by donors Snooks and Lola Fuller, on a new section of wharf built especially for the cast bronze sculpture.

Mr Fuller, a grandson of Albert Fuller, who started the family marine transport business in 1886, and his wife had been looking for a way of giving something back to the Bay of Islands community for several years.

They eventually settled on a marlin statue, which they believed would enhance the wharf, be a popular subject for photos, and pay homage to the Bay of Islands' beginnings as a tourist Mecca.

The Bay's first tourism boom was sparked by American writer and fisherman Zane Grey, who in 1926 described it as an "Angler's Eldorado," boasting the world's biggest striped marlins.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The couple met with Focus Paihia in 2015 to discuss the project. A survey followed to ensure it had the town's support. The Fullers were keen for the statue to be as life-like as possible, but that proved more complicated than they anticipated.

They enlisted the help of daughter Sam Fuller and her partner Pieter, who decided the best way to get the proportions right was to arrange a 3D scan of a mounted striped marlin on display at the Bay of Islands Swordfish Club.

They eventually found a company, Axia Design, in Napier, which was intrigued by the project and the technical challenged it posed.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Once the marlin had been scanned the digital model was manipulated to give the fish a jumping posture, and a full-size model was made in tooling board using a computer-controlled cutter.

The model was used to make a mould, and the statue was cast in sections from molten bronze. Finally the pieces were welded together and a patina applied to give the bronze its colour, including the marlin's stripes.

Saturday's unveiling was attended by three generations of the Fuller family and more than 100 members of the Bay of Islands community.

Speeches were made by Mr Fuller, his granddaughters, deputy Mayor Tania McInnes, and Grant Harnish, of Focus Paihia, which built the new section of wharf. Refreshments afterwards at the Swordfish Club included (what else?) smoked marlin.

* A plaque on the statue's base records the Fuller family history in the Bay, starting with Albert Fuller's coal deliveries to the islands in 1886. The business expanded into mail deliveries, the famous Cream Trip and a Paihia-Russell car ferry.

* The family sold up in 1967. Fuller's GreatSights Bay of Islands is owned by the InterCity Group.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from The Country

The Country

'I feel aggrieved': 92-year-old online shopper's warning after supermarket meat purchase

The Country
|Updated

Rural community 'in shock' as industrial park greenlit

The Country

Beekeeper advocacy group comes under pressure


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from The Country

'I feel aggrieved': 92-year-old online shopper's warning after supermarket meat purchase
The Country

'I feel aggrieved': 92-year-old online shopper's warning after supermarket meat purchase

A butcher says just 65% of the meat Godfrey Rodgers received would be edible if cooked.

16 Jul 06:00 PM
Rural community 'in shock' as industrial park greenlit
The Country
|Updated

Rural community 'in shock' as industrial park greenlit

16 Jul 06:00 PM
Beekeeper advocacy group comes under pressure
The Country

Beekeeper advocacy group comes under pressure

16 Jul 03:00 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP