This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
46.09863° S, 168.94730° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
The brown trout leaping above the Welcome to Gore sign has a name now. As of February 2026, after a Gore District Council naming campaign, it is officially Trevor.
It has taken thirty-seven years to get one. The sculpture has stood in Gore since 1989, and it was designed, built and paid for locally – the town raised the money and the town made the object. Local artist Errol Allison spent close to a year on it, working with Scott Sheetmetal to scale his design up to its finished size in metal.
That matters to what it is. A great many Big Things were fabricated by specialist firms in capital cities and trucked to towns that had commissioned them. This one was conceived, funded and built inside its own district by people who fish the rivers it depicts.
And Gore genuinely does. The Mataura River is one of the best-known brown trout fisheries in the world, and the town's claim to be the brown trout capital rests on decades of anglers travelling to Southland for it. The leaping pose is the moment every one of them is there for.
Gore is unusual in carrying two significant oversized objects – the trout and the Hands of Fame guitar – for two entirely separate claims to fame, fishing and country music. Neither is a stretch.
Tourism New Zealand currently directs visitors to take a selfie at the trout, which, along with the naming campaign, suggests a town well aware that its fish is doing real work.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
Tourism New Zealand currently directs visitors to take a selfie at the giant trout, and in February 2026 Gore District Council’s naming campaign resulted in the landmark being officially named Trevor. RNZ records that the locally designed and built sculpture has stood in Gore since 1989.
ACCESS
Trevor the Big Trout is an exact, independently mapped public town landmark. For vehicle arrival, use the map-checked Gore Visitor Centre at 16 Hokonui Drive, with parking accessed from Norfolk Street, then continue roughly 180 metres on foot to the trout.
