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Meet the Finalists for People's Choicest Landmark
Have your say on the best landmark in New Zealand! Vote for People’s Choicest and celebrate how Kiwi live.
Mother Nature has certainly created some stunning landmarks in New Zealand, but The Lord of the Rings has done them to death. But what about the human-made icons? The ones you recognise from a distance, the ones that tell you, "Yep, you’re in New Zealand." It's time for these landmarks to have their moment to shine.
The finalists for the Choicest Landmark in New Zealand are:
- The Sky Tower, Auckland
- Paeroa’s L&P Bottle
- The Ohakune Carrot
You can vote for your favourite here. But before you do, here’s a closer look at each…
The Sky Tower
With its head in the clouds, the Sky Tower stands 328 meters tall, making it the tallest structure in New Zealand. (It held the title of the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere until 2022, when Jakarta’s Autograph Tower surpassed it by 54 meters.)
Completed in 1997 as part of a major tourism hub, the Sky Tower has dominated the Auckland skyline for over 28 years. As a city landmark, it has become a symbol of Tāmaki Makaurau—offering both a point of orientation and a tangible connection to Auckland’s volcanic cones. Architect Gordon Moller described it as a pou whenua (land post), marking the city.
Visitors can enjoy dining at the rotating Orbit 360 restaurant, test their nerves on the glass-floored observation deck, or even experience the thrill of base jumping, plummeting to the ground at speeds of up to 85 km/h.
The Sky Tower also lights up for special occasions, typically for rugby events or charitable causes, and hosts the annual New Year's Eve fireworks display.
Less known, but equally important, is its role in Auckland's telecommunications infrastructure, housing antennas and equipment for TV, radio, and mobile phone services.
L&P Bottle
A road trip through the Waikato doesn’t get more Kiwiana-core than this.
L&P is an iconic Kiwi fizzy drink, first created in Paeroa in the 1950s—a carbonated blend of lemony goodness and Paeroa spring water.
The first giant L&P bottle appeared at Christmas in 1968, but it had to be dismantled due to becoming a traffic hazard. Rubberneckers, you see. Not willing to let a good idea go, a second oversized bottle was erected a year later at Ōhinemuri Reserve, where it stands to this day. The bottle is 7.8 meters tall, with bubbles leading up to it on the concrete path.
This marked the dawn of New Zealand's love for giant town-promoting landmarks. In the 1970s, Saatchi & Saatchi in Auckland coined the memorable tagline "World famous in New Zealand," which quickly became Kiwi slang for a blend of parochial pride and self-deprecating humour. Nothing could be more Kiwi than that!
In 1980, the factory in Paeroa closed, and L&P production moved to Auckland, prompting one fan to suggest the drink should now be called "Lemon & Panmure."
Despite these changes, the L&P legacy endures, and its popularity remains strong. As one Google reviewer put it: “I finally got back to Paeroa as a grown-up, and I gotta say, the bottle seemed much more impressive when I was four years old.”
Ohakune Carrot
A New Zealand cultural icon and revered landmark—the 40-year-old giant carrot.
You can’t miss the 7.5-meter-tall vegetable—its impressive length and girth are topped off with a sprout of greenery at the root. Plonked along State Highway 49, on the outskirts of Ohakune, at the base of the Tongariro National Park.
The Ohakune carrot started out as a prop for an ANZ ad and was then gifted to the Ohakune Growers Association. They say their carrots are the sweetest in the country because of the temperate climate, which allows them to stay in the ground longer.
It has since become an Insta-worthy stop—perfect for selfies with a giant vegetable before heading up Ruapehu for skiing in winter or hiking in summer.
Originally, the idea of having a phallic carrot on a triangle of bushy ground was a bit much for some locals, who suggested two swedes instead. But these days, everything is ka pai.
Now, 'Kune, as the locals say, is known as the “Carrot Capital” of New Zealand, with the carrot symbolism of the area further endorsed by an annual Carrot Festival, which includes a fiercely contested Carrot Cook-off competition.
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