'Lobby' the giant crayfish takes a break

Otago Daily Times

4 days ago

Lobby, the iconic orange Kaikōura crayfish, has endured gales, storms, and a huge earthquake.
But is time for the big orange cray, a landmark for many travellers on State Highway 1, and visitors to the town, to take a well-earned break and get some much-needed care and attention.
Usually hanging two stories up on the outside of the Lobster Inn Motor Lodge tavern overlooking SH1/Beach Rd in Kaikōura, the 6.5m-long Lobby, as locals named it, recently suffered at the hands of someone who may have wanted to score themselves a souvenir.
Staff noticed something was amiss back in the early hours of February 2 this year but, as yet, no one has been held accountable.
That, and the long years Lobby had spent in the sun, enduring the often extreme Kaikōura winds and salty sea air, meant Lobby needed some immediate tender loving care and attention from the technicians at Hi-Tech Sheetmetals in Christchurch.
Made of galvanised sheet iron, steel bars, mesh, papier-mâché and fibreglass, the iconic creature has long been a popular and photogenic sight for visitors to the town over many years.
In 1992, the owner of the then Sun Trap Restaurant, Annette Painter (nee Paterson) and partner Lindsay Painter were looking for a way to attract customers to the restaurant, which specialised in crayfish.
"We wanted something iconic, so we decided to build a large crayfish as a bit of fun."
Lindsay started work in the basement, constructing it from papier-mâché and anything he could lay his hands on.
The couple used real estate signs to fabricate the tail, plastic downpipes for the antenna, galvanised iron tubes for the legs, children's rubber balls for the eyes and broomsticks for the stalks.
"He moved it all to his garage when it got too big for the basement, and then we covered it in several coats of fibreglass to stop the birds, who had started eating the papier mache."
Local panel beater Tony Muir then painted the structure.
To get the right shade of orange for the body, the couple drove to the Mitre-10 in Blenheim, placed a cooked crayfish on the counter and politely asked paint staff there to match the colour.
Annette says Kaikōura mural artist Brett Pettit advised them on how to make it come alive and appear more realistic.
"We gave him a cooked crayfish, and he knew what he had to do with the additions of the back knobs, the colouration and shading, etc."
Once they had strengthened the structure, Lindsay then fixed it to the upper story of the building on July 22, 1992.
"I have to admit it was a bit scary climbing up there, underneath it, sticking it to the wall," he says.
Annette says he did an amazing job creating the attraction.
The very next day, Kaikōura was hit by a mini typhoon, which caused a lot of damage to roofs in the area, but not to the new crayfish statue.
The couple say it was a lot of fun making it, and soon everyone in the town had an opinion about it.
Annette said initially some locals liked it, while others hated it.
"Some children were afraid of the monster crayfish, and others asked why we hadn't put a whale up there, as Kaikōura was famous for its whales.
"I simply replied that we don't sell whale meat, we sell crayfish."
Unbeknownst to the couple, several days before they had mounted their now iconic crayfish a television documentary crew had passed through Kaikōura on their way to look at iconic town structures like Gore's trout.
On their way back to Wellington, the crew stopped to include it in their documentary along with Ohakune's carrot and Paeroa's L&P bottle.
"We made it onto TVNZ's Inside NZ programme and that helped create the national interest in our restaurant and Kaikōura," says Annette.
Over the years, the Kaikōura crayfish has appeared in countless tourist photos, featured as a 40-cent stamp in 1998, adorned a $1 Lotto scratchie, and was also once painted black in support of the All Blacks.
Annette sold the business in 1995 and moved to Christchurch with Lindsay.
Julie and Neil Pablecheque bought the business and the buildings and developed the Lobster Inn Motor Lodge.
They painted the signature crayfish black in 2011 to support the All Blacks during the Rugby World Cup.
Neil Pablecheque said the 'Paint It Black' lobster was a great way to show the region was cheering for the All Blacks.
"It also gave visitors a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a giant black lobster."
Tony Muir painted it black to match Ohakune's 'Paint It Black' signature carrot statue.
He later returned it to its usual orange colour and says that over the years he has had to climb up a few times and fix the odd bit of rust, or broken bits caused by the infamous Kaikōura wind or sea storms.
Today Lobby rests in Christchurch awaiting the verdict from insurers.
Hi-Tech Sheetmetals' general manager, Trevor Dart, said it is a very fragile structure.
"We specialise in bespoke custom builds and fabrications," Dart said.
"Lobby is made of a mixture of materials and will be a challenge to fix, but we can't wait to start."