Together with the Gigantic Kiwi Slice Platform Thingy perhaps New Zealand’s number 1 silly iconic tourist landmark. I just can’t get enough of it… – especially if I happen to stumble over fantastic photos like these.

Google Maps Location.

Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) 2012 Phillip Capper. Thanks so much, Phillip!
Originals: here, here and here.

Part 2 of the collection: “Best of Ugly New Zealand Edition South Island (BOUNZESI)”. Have a lovely weekend, y’all, while deciding if the South or the North wins. For me, it’s clear as Lake Wakatipu.

Let’s ignore the overwhelming Freudian and Hitch-cock-ian subtexts for a second, and let’s just enjoy this architectural tribute to Miles Davis. Another visual rollercoaster by the tremendous Wentao Yin.

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Photo © 2011 Wentao Yin. Original here.

“Mom, why has the woman spikes in her bum?” Another action-packed Palmerston thrill-ride by Wentao Yin. Also don’t miss the bugs crawling all over the building. The perfect theme park for a relaxed post party drug chillout…

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Photo © 2011 Wentao Yin. Original here.

Double feature! Finally! The Beauty of Palmerston North’s Square, this brutalist manifesto of concrete poetry.

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Photo © 2011 Wentao Yin. Original here and here.

An anonymous reader sent us this shot of yet another shocking piece of public art, this time in Kaiapoi. It even withstood the might of the irritated earth gods:

“A large faultline ruptured only metres from this creation and failed to move this monster! Perhaps it even caused it?”

Photo © 2011 Anonymous

After the tragic death of the Phar Lap, his fans and the racing fraternity ennobled the memory of the champion gelding by sending his arse back to Australia, keeping his bones in New Zealand, and exporting his shoes to the Philippines. A thoroughbred, a complete horsey, bossing the track and strutting proud and free in his domain: this image could not be complete without a statue of a frozen horse riding a goods lift up towards heaven. Travel well, wonder horse.

Another more-than-just-exquisite guest post by the valorous designer, teacher and author Alex Gilks, accompanying this magical shot by the sensational Grant Dommen.

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Photo © 2011 Grant Dommen. Original here.

Kiwis seem to like are seemingly able to endure a lot when it comes to monuments. Every 50 metre there is some preposterious pile of rubble or twisted DIY-artwork with clumsily attached plaques well-meaning monument, reminding passer-bys of this or that. Those lost to the sea in this case, undeniably a serious and worthwile cause.

I still wonder if, given the number of ships that sank after contact with cliffs and the amount of witnesses permanently disposed with the help of rocks, a huge piece of stone is really the most sensitive way to convey this message? Perhaps the objective wasn’t tippy-toeing…

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Photo © 2011 Gary Williams @ kovertuk. Original here.

Nom-nom! A tremendously complex shot by the mysterious RK. Note how RK chose a perspective avoiding face-to-face confrontrations with the little critters, thus preserving the full creature privacy. Also note the screws mounting the  statuette on the wodden pedestal. Ingenious!

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Photo © 2011 RK. Original here.

You know, mocking Dunedin is nearly a bit too easy. As if the brave inhabitants of this small- to medium-size University town wouldn’t struggle enough already with their image as the last bathroom before the Antarctica (shush, Invercargill!), their silly dialect, and – since the demise of K.C.’s –, the lack of any classy night life joint.

Don’t get me started on the other past Dunedin oddities.

Then again, some entity must have signed the permission for the erection of these stone “molars” in Dunedin’s harbour. Somebody… – or should I say thing? – thought that 6 roughly sculptured stone… thingies next to a quite magnificient harbour basin would enrich this place. And let me guess: thy name was city council, wasn’t it!

Well, poor senseless council thing: you erred. A little rule of thumb for the next times: tartar-shaped ropes are fairly reliable indicators for poorly developed artistic visions.

Google Maps Location (so far, without molars)

Photo © 2011 Carolyn Guytonbeck of Totally Wired. Great shot, Carolyn, thanks a lot!