17 Mataroa Road, Taihape, Rangitikei

Taihape Gumboot

While some Giant Things have been part of the cultural landscape for a while, others are relatively recent additions. Sculptor Jeff Thompson’s gumboot in Taihape is probably the most artistic of all the giant things (except of course pretty much everything at Gibbs Farm, but they don’t have the essential kitsch element to make them count). Taihape was one of many small towns suffering from economic woes in the 1980s, they have managed to generate new interest by designating it as the ‘gumboot capital of the world’, with an annual Gumboot Day that includes gumboot races and throwing competitions and they host other slightly silly events around a gumboot theme. Thompson suggested a corrugated iron gumboot as an icon for Taihape in the late 1990s, this idea was taken up pretty quickly and his work was installed in 2000.

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