This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
Site-level location · 38.6892° S, 176.0685° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
Taupō and Gore both built giant trout in the 1990s, and the two towns have been the country's rival trout capitals ever since.
Taupō's is metal, near the boat harbour, with current specialist mapping placing it around Ferry Road and Tongariro Street. RNZ's survey of New Zealand's oversized sculptures groups it with Gore's brown trout – both built in the nineties – and with the Rakaia salmon, which has stood since 1991.
The fishery behind it is genuinely world class. Lake Taupō and the rivers feeding it, above all the Tongariro, hold one of the most famous rainbow trout fisheries anywhere; the fish were introduced in the late nineteenth century, grew enormous on the lake's smelt, and have drawn anglers internationally for well over a century. The Tongariro's winter run is the event of the New Zealand fishing calendar.
Siting the sculpture at the boat harbour rather than on the highway is the correct decision. That is where the charter boats leave from, and the audience for a trout monument is people about to go and catch one.
Metal rather than fibreglass matters too. A trout's defining feature is the way light moves across it, and worked metal holds that far better than painted glassfibre – which is presumably why Gore's is metal as well.
Taupō now has a considerable cluster of oversized objects: the trout, the giant bicycle, the prawn at Huka Prawn Park, the #LOVETAUPŌ lettering and Boom Boom the mirrored sauropod.
The person responsible and the year are missing from the documentation.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
RNZ’s current survey of New Zealand Big Things confirms Taupō’s giant metal trout remains one of the country’s recognised oversized landmarks. Current specialist mapping places it near Ferry Road and Tongariro Street.
ACCESS
The giant trout is at the Taupō boat-harbour waterfront near the Ferry Road / Tongariro Street corner. Drivers should use the unrestricted on-street parking on Ferry Road mapped by Taupō District Council, about 80 m from the trout site point, and walk to the sculpture; the council also provides extra-long lakefront parks on Ferry Road for motorhomes, caravans and boat trailers. Do not stop on Tongariro Street beside the sculpture.
