This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
45.88734° S, 170.50728° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
Six giant wisdom teeth are erupting from the edge of Otago Harbour, which is exactly the word for what they are doing.
Regan Gentry completed Harbour Mouth Molars in 2010, carving them from Ōamaru stone with concrete, and set them along the shoreline at the harbour mouth on Portsmouth Drive. The pun is structural rather than decorative – a harbour has a mouth, a mouth has molars, and the sculptures push up through the ground at the waterline the way teeth push through a gum.
Ōamaru stone is the right material and a vulnerable one. It is a soft, creamy limestone quarried up the coast, easily worked and the reason North Otago's Victorian streetscapes look the way they do. It is also porous, and a sculpture made of it sitting at a harbour edge is exposed to salt spray, wind-blown dust and seagulls in combination.
The work has needed care. Gentry has returned to grind accumulated dirt from the caps, regrout and carry out other maintenance, and the Otago Daily Times has documented that process. It has also been attacked: three of the six were spray-painted in 2011, and two of the Ōamaru stone pieces were hacked with what appeared to be an axe.
That it survives, cleaned and regrouted, is a small credit to a city that decided a set of enormous teeth on its waterfront was worth keeping. Te Ara documents the work in its account of the public impact of sculpture in New Zealand.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
Te Ara documents Regan Gentry’s 2010 work as six large teeth made from Ōamaru stone and concrete. Contemporary Otago Daily Times coverage confirms the work remains in place and has undergone maintenance.
ACCESS
Harbour Mouth Molars is a public artwork in Kitchener Street Recreation Reserve beside Portsmouth Drive. Dunedin City Council documents a gravel drive through the reserve and notes that people commonly enjoy the harbour views from their cars; current local event material also refers to the Harbour Mouth Molars car park. Lawful vehicle access is therefore established, but PBT still withholds direct navigation until the preferred exact parking/arrival point is independently map-checked.
Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand · recorded 2026-08-23
National encyclopedia documents six large wisdom teeth.
Government
What we're still checking
The exact Harbour Mouth Molars artwork location is confirmed, but a preferred lawful vehicle arrival/parking point has not yet been independently map-checked.
Something not right?
If this Big Thing has changed, moved or gone, telling us keeps the guide honest for the next traveller.
