Mark's been making welcome sign for 30 years

Mark Wickham has renewed his welcome to the Whanganui River. PHOTO/ SUPPLIED

It's hard yakka when proofreading your work means climbing down one hill and driving up another to get a look at it.

Mark Wickham was faced with that when he tidied and improved the sign in a paddock that he instigated 30 years ago, as a 12-year-old.

The sign now says "WELCOME TO THE WHANGANUI RIVER", picked out in a double row of boulders painted white and dug into a hillside on the Wickham family farm.

You can see it just after cresting the Gentle Annie hill as you head inland on the Whanganui River Rd.

Young Mark got the idea for the sign during one May holidays, when he was home from boarding school. Family and friends pitched in and a helicopter moved thousands of boulders up onto the hillside.

He's had to attend to it many times in the 30 years since.

When the river got the "Whanganui" spelling, he carried boulders up the hill to add the "H".

"I was one of the first to put the "H" in."

Five years ago he doubled the rows of boulders, to make the sign more readable.

This year, helping muster for docking on the family farm, he noticed the sign was barely visible. Boulders had sunk into the ground, and grass had grown up and obscured them.

About a month ago he got to work with a brushcutter, carted more boulders up in a backpack, dug them in and painted them. To see the effect he had to climb down the hill and drive up the hillside opposite.

"That was a bit of a mission," he said.

The sign is a lot more visible now, and he's proud of it.

"It certainly is an iconic thing for the region."

Back in 1986, Mark Wickham was asked what he wanted to do when he grew up. The Chronicle recorded it would be a toss-up between farming and tourism.

Sure enough, these days he's helping on the farm and also has a tourism business, Whanganui Scenic Experience Jet.