Awesome Kiwi Welcomes
New Zealanders have an international reputation for friendliness - and its starts on the road into most towns, cities and villages with the traditional 'welcome sign'.
Communities often put huge amounts of effort into creating Kiwi welcome signs that greet visitors, such as:
Manaia (Taranaki)
The biggest employer in Manaia (pop. 924) is a bakery so the locals have celebrated by claiming their town as the Bread Capital of New Zealand, and erecting a 3-D double loaf of bread as their welcome sign.
Gore (Southland)
Gore has two claims to fame - it sees itself as the world capital of brown trout fishing and the country music capital of New Zealand. In the centre of town, a giant leaping trout welcomes visitors.
Cromwell (Otago)
Cromwell is famous for its fruit production so residents have built a giant bowl of fruit (apple, nectarine, pear, peach) at the entrance to town. Given the area's ability to produce outstanding wines, the locals have been debating whether to add a bunch of grapes to the structure.
Taihape (Manawatu-Wanganui)
This central North Island town is typical of New Zealand's rural towns where blokes stomp around in black singlets and gumboots. The town holds an annual sports day for gumboot throwing and greets visitors with a huge corrugated steel gumboot.
Dannevirke (Manawatu-Wanganui)
Some visitors must get a bit of a shock when they round the corner and discover a 10-metre high Viking, complete with axe, welcoming them to Dannevirke, a town founded by Scandanvians.
* Thanks to the publishers of Welcome To New Zealand for permission to reproduce photographs from the book. Welcome To New Zealand is a collection of 350 'welcome signs' and is available at bookshops.