Balloon on a Rope – Pāuatahanui

Pāuatahanui, Wellington, New Zealand

Public art

Current – limited access

Checked by Project Big Things · Sep 2026

This Big Thing is still here, but public access is limited. Check the access notes for details before visiting.

A large landscape-scale composite sculpture combining a long wave fence with Seung Yul Oh’s Kimi form.

Before you stop

Do not stop at the landmark itself. Use the arrival information below.

Do not route directly to the individual sculpture or stop on Transmission Gully.

Limited access
Check the access notes for details before visiting
Check where to stop
No arrival point is cleared for direct navigation yet

Private to your Passport.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Arrival details not yet cleared

We have researched the approach, but no stopping point is cleared for direct navigation yet.

This takes you to the Big Thing itself. Do not stop at the landmark; use the recommended arrival if stopping.

Balloon on a Rope – Pāuatahanui

This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Approximate location · 41.120° S, 174.920° E

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Balloon on a Rope is two sculptures that were never meant to be one.

The first was a wave fence, designed to play against the curve of an earthen amphitheatre directly behind it. Its whole quality is transparency that comes and goes: as you move along it the structure opens and closes, solid then see-through then solid again, depending entirely on your angle to it. That is an effect a fence can achieve and a wall cannot.

The second was a maquette of Seung Yul Oh's Kimi / You Are Here – the full-size version of which stands in Waitangi Park in central Wellington. Looking for somewhere on the property to place it, the owners found it sat well on top of the wave fence.

Combined, the two read as something neither was: a balloon on a rope, tethered and pulling in the wind. The interpretation came after the assembly rather than before it, which is an unusually honest thing for a sculpture park to admit.

It stands at The Morgans at Pāuatahanui, at the head of the Pāuatahanui Inlet north of Wellington – a private sculpture collection on rolling land above the harbour arm, which is why the catalogue records it as access-restricted rather than a roadside stop.

The accident is what makes it worth the entry. Most large sculpture is resolved on paper long before it is fabricated. This one was arrived at by putting one finished thing on top of another and noticing what happened.

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PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

The Morgans describes the work as a long transparent wave structure topped by the balloon-like Kimi form, deliberately read as a tethered balloon in the wind.

ACCESS

Private art park; access is by appointment and guided tour only.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

Current – limited access

Ocean Pasture – Pāuatahanui

Pāuatahanui, Wellington

A monumental earthwork at The Morgans Art Park formed as large rolling green waves across the landscape.

Public art

0.0 km away

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

The Morgans – Art Park

The Morgans · recorded 2026-08-23

Current operator confirms trail access and scale intent.

Official

The Morgans – Balloon on a Rope

The Morgans · recorded 2026-08-23

Operator describes the composite large-scale work.

Official

What we're still checking

This artwork is on a private sculpture trail and should only be visited under the operator’s current booking arrangements.

Current attraction geography remains locality-level because Sprint 8 did not find defensible mapped/GIS/geotagged site or object geometry.

Open-licence image search completed 24 August 2026. No defensible reusable image with file-level commercial-use provenance was verified in the completed Commons, government/open-licence and archival/open-collection sweep.

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If this Big Thing has changed, moved or gone, telling us keeps the guide honest for the next traveller.

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