Hauraki District Council is floating the idea of relocating the 50-year-old world famous in New Zealand L&P bottle.
The town’s giant bottle has been such a selfie-magnet that its current location on the eastern outskirts of Paeroa is not maximising its potential to lure dollars out of visitors, some say.
Hauraki mayor Toby Adams says a move closer to shops in the centre of town will be floated with the community.
With work about to start on the Wharf St wharf and pontoon, which will link town with the Paeroa Historical Maritime Museum and Hauraki Rail Trail via riverboat, he said it was time to look at how best to maximise on visits by tourists.
“There’s been some conversation that we need to bring it back into the town. Wharf St is going to be part of the focus for the town. If we can encourage people to park in town and get their photo in the middle of the town we might be able to catch more of their dollars.”
He said the drawcard of the bottle was “huge” for Paeroa.
The bottle began from no-so-humble beginnings as a replica space rocket for Paeroa’s 1967 Christmas promotion. The original 7 metre high 1.3 metre diameter structure was made of six stacked concrete water troughs with a fibre-glass “neck” housing a public address system that blared music and announcements during the promotion.
It was then painted in Lemon & Paeroa bottle colours before in early 1969 being stored away. Since being rebuilt and established on its current site later that year, the “bottle” has become one of the most well-known and photographed structures in New Zealand and reproduced on postage stamps.
