Ancient wildlife sculpture
South Island adzebill
Ngutu hahau, the world’s largest rail. Drawn, unplaced.
On paper. Not yet decided.
Where we are now
A drawing and a spot. The design is 1 m by 1 m, two birds slightly offset on a concrete plinth strengthened with box section.
What it becomes
Two birds on this ground with toetoe growing between them.
Why this matters
Five of the trail’s subjects are moa, and it would be easy to read the whole thing as a story about large flightless grazers. The adzebill is the correction, standing on the same hillside.
What needs to happen
1 of 6- Placement decided
- Design decided
- Council agreement
- Funding guaranteed
- Apex instructed and a due date agreed
- Opening ceremony planned
The plant in the drawing is a real plant
The note on the drawing says the toetoe around this bird “would be real and not part of the sculpture”. It is a small line that says a great deal about how the two halves of this project fit together: the sculpture is designed with the planting already grown up around it.
In deep time
Aptornis defossor, ngutu hahau. An 80 cm, 18 kg predator with a razor-sharp beak and tiny, functionless wings — the world’s largest rail.