“Out of the gate and off for a walk went Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy.”

In 2015 Hairy Maclary author Dame Lynley Dodd declared herself humbled and overwhelmed when statues of her world famous story book characters were opened on the waterfront in Downtown Tauranga.

The five year project had finally been realised and Prime Minister John Key attended the gala opening along with a 300-strong crowd.  A fitting home for the sculptures given that creator Lynley Dodd has spent most of her life here in Tauranga.

Now locals and visitors alike can enjoy these stunning life sized sculptures, that were lovingly crafted by Brigitte Wuest, lead sculptor for none other than Sir Peter Jackson at Weta Works in Wellington.  Brigitte took the two dimensional characters and re-created them in three, under Dame Lynley Dodd’s watchful gaze.

The project was developed and led by Creative Tauranga’s then CEO Tracey Rudduck-Gudsell and achieved a "storybook scene" of permanent bronze sculptures of Hairy Maclary and some of his friends – Scarface Claw, Slinky Malinki, Hercules Morse, Muffin McLay, Bottomley Potts, Schnitzel von Krumm, Bitzer Maloney and Zachary Quack. 

The larger-than-life public art display allows kids of all ages to get up close to these giants of the children’s book world in an iconic setting on the waterfront.  

If you know even a little of this iconic book series this sculpture display is well worth a stop and some great photos.