Old Southland spirit sign surfaces
It had to be moved with a tractor and waterblasted, but a piece of Southland history is now back on the road.
The solid, half-tonne Southland Spirit of a Nation sign was left unused on a rural property for four years.
Southland Spirit of a Nation brand manager Gerry Forde uncovered the sign at a property on Fairweather Rd, about 7 kilometres from Invercargill.
Forde said it makes the original inten- tion, the spirit of Southland, alive again.
‘‘It’s been lying in the paddock for four years,’’ Forde said.
‘‘We gave it a good waterblasting and the blue came back.’’
The sign had passed through many hands to get where it is today.
Builders at Sand and Gravel in Tweed St found the sign when they changed ownership.
They contacted Forde, as the brand manager, and offered it to him.
From about 1997 it had been displayed on Tweed St for everyone arriving in Invercargill from the airport, Forde said.
The sign is outside the property on Fairweather Rd, where Forde is holding a working bee today.
‘‘The spirit of the public is coming back.’’
The first Southland Spirit of a Nation working bee, open to the public, would be from 9am to 5pm today at 161 Fairweather Rd.
The group would harvest potatoes, carrots and silverbeet, and plant cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli and potatoes.
Workers would also split wood, load trailers and deliver firewood.
Vegetables and wood were for 16 families being supported by the programme, a joint initiative between St Patrick’s and Rimu community groups and Southland Spirit of a Nation.
‘‘The more people who support this working bee and other endeavours of the group, the more families will be helped,’’ Forde said.
‘‘This is like a relaunch of Spirit of a Nation, which depends on people helping the community.’’