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Tell someone you’re from Hamilton and they’ll say one of three things: “Well, it’s not too far from Auckland”, which is true as the two cities inch closer along the spanking new expressway. Or, “We hear it’s great for single blokes”, which is also true as Hamilton has the highest ratio of single women to single men (100:77) of any city in New Zealand. They might also say, “Shame you can’t see the river”. Which is not true.

Two sculptures define Hamilton.

One is of a farming family: mum, dad, two kids, a cow, a sheep and a working dog, paradoxically placed on a traffic island overlooking the CBD. It was donated by rich-lister Sir Robert Jones, who appreciates the value of the rural dollar.

The second is of a sweet transvestite from Transylvania, dressed in high heels and fishnet tights, the doppelganger of adopted Kiwi writer and performer Richard O’Brien who lived in Hamilton during his bodgie teenage years. O’Brien also had pastoral roots but is best known for creating The Rocky Horror Picture Show which has a cult following. The sculpture Riff Raff – the character played by O’Brien in the show - was erected in his honour.

Hamilton can never downplay the importance of its rural roots; the city’s wealth was built on the rivers of white gold that pump through Fonterra’s vats. But it has another side – what Auckland film-maker Martin Rumsby calls “off-centredness”. That is what Riff Raff represents. To find it, you need to go beyond the i-SITE office, avoid the malls and never cross the threshold of a Starbucks but instead hang out with a man called Emit Snake-Beings who will tell you how to find the stuff below the surface (see The arts trail page 51).