Daily Photo – Waianakarua Memorial Hall

A dozen kilometres before I arrived at the famed Moeraki Boulders, I came to the settlement of Waianakarua, home to “The Big Chicken”. A 6.6 metre-high chicken carved out of a macrocarpa tree, a local icon since 1978 and the 2025 New Zealand Tree of the Year. Well, right next door is the Waianakarua Hall. Like so many rural halls, it’s many things. It’s a dance floor, a meeting room, a polling booth, and a memorial. There are honour rolls with the names of sons of farmers and labourers who swapped paddocks for trenches. People who once knew the area intimately and found themselves learning the geography of Gallipoli and France instead. It was all very forgettable, in a memorable sort of way, if you get my meaning.