Giant Kiwifruit Slices – Te Puke

Green and gold, side by side, at the western entrance to town – the two kiwifruit varieties that made Te Puke, presented as a pair of enormous slices.

That pairing is the whole idea, and it is more informative than a single fruit would be. Green kiwifruit is the original commercial variety, the fuzzy-skinned Hayward that built the industry from the middle of the twentieth century. Gold is the later development, sweeter, smoother-skinned and yellow-fleshed, bred in New Zealand and now an enormous export in its own right. A town that shows both is describing its industry's history and its present in one object.