Cumulus – Giant Cloud and Ladders

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.

An 18-metre-high Neil Dawson kinetic cloud-and-ladders sculpture on The Morgans sculpture trail.

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
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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.

Cumulus – Giant Cloud and Ladders

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

Approximate location · 41.080° S, 174.940° E

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Eighteen metres of cloud with two ladders leading into the sky, and the whole thing moves when the wind gets up.

Neil Dawson made Cumulus, and it is two-dimensional – a flat cut form rather than a solid volume, which is characteristic of his work and the reason it can be that large without being enormously heavy. Dawson is among New Zealand's most significant sculptors, best known for suspended and skeletal works that describe volume with almost no material, including the Christchurch Art Gallery's ferns and Wellington's Ferns in Civic Square.

The subject suits the method exactly. A cloud has no surface and no edge; making one out of flat cut steel that reads as billowing from a distance and as an outline up close is the correct solution to an impossible brief.

RNZ records the work at eighteen metres and notes that it moves in strong Wellington winds – which at that site means often. It stands on The Morgans sculpture trail above Transmission Gully, north of Wellington, in the collection that also holds Morpheus, Balloon on a Rope, the Rainbow Bridge and a 7.3-metre park bench.

The ladders are the part that lingers. Two of them, leading up into a cloud, going nowhere in particular – an image that is either hopeful or slightly unsettling depending on the day and the weather, and which the wind keeps rearranging.

The trail opened for private bookings in late 2025, so access is by arrangement rather than open.

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PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

RNZ records Cumulus at 18 metres high and notes that it moves in strong Wellington winds. It forms part of the privately booked Transmission Gully sculpture trail.

ACCESS

Private property; visit only through an authorised sculpture-trail booking.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

Current – limited access

Giant Park Bench – Pāuatahanui

Pāuatahanui, Wellington

A 7.3-metre-high oversized park bench on The Morgans sculpture trail above Transmission Gully.

Public art

0.0 km away

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

RNZ – Morgan giant sculpture trail opens

RNZ · recorded 2026-08-23

On-site report records Cumulus at 18m and moving in wind.

News

What we're still checking

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.

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

The sculpture is on private property and should only be visited under current authorised booking arrangements.

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