A few years ago people thought of Morrinsville as a ‘cow town’.

It had a Fonterra plant, stockyards, lots of tractors and rural supplies stores, vets, and even a rendering plant to cope with those that didn’t make the grade.

When the doors finally opened and they streamed in, there were 15 shrouded creatures, wearing large loose coverings.

Rising to the Challenge, painted by P J Paterson, is sponsored by Greenlea Meats. (Note the rotor on top).

Cows revealed
First there were speeches and then, one by one, the ‘art’ was revealed, with a sponsor representative and the relevant artist providing the multiple stories behind the different forms of decoration.

Some sponsors had ideas, some just gave carte blanche to the artist, but in every case the result was world class, drawing applause and gasps of amazement from the throng.

Some examples were an electric cow, another with a rotor on top, a concrete truck cow which stood in painted wet concrete, a pharmacy cow, a striped cow, one showing all the opportunities for fun Morrinsville offers, a Kiwiana cow, a cow covered in triangles, another showing all aspects of Kiwi farming including a topdressing plane, and one which showed on one side what happened when disaster struck and how it helped to have insurance on the other.

A cubist cow, modelled on Picasso’s ideas, also has a secret. If one crawls underneath, her tum has a wonderful owl hidden away.

Each of these wonders have now been hidden again by their sponsors, while they await the pouring of their 300kg concrete plinths, which will be sited in prearranged spots throughout the town, and the cows will be bolted to them. All should be revealed in early May.

In the meantime another 15 have been sponsored, created and await the next eager bunch of artists. Their launch is planned for July/August.

Kiwiana, painted by Aaron Smith, is sponsored by Evonik.

Cow makers
Before the unveiling I noticed two guys who didn’t seem part of the Morrinsville crowd.  They turned out to be the cow makers, and when they saw what had been achieved, their grins were definitely from ear to ear. And I’m happy to report the cows themselves are definitely Body Condition Score 5 – just perfect.

When the Morrinsville herd is complete, from overseas experience, it will bring visitors to the town in droves.

Google reckons the ‘herds’ in other cities around the world have been seen by half a billion people. The Morrinsville cafes had better get cracking on the scones and coffee ASAP.