The massive scale of the sculpture is evident as soon as you round the corner in tiny Rissington Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Its scale hits you smack in the eye as you round the corner off Rissington's one-lane bridge, this tall lonely memorial to those who went to war.
It's carved from the huge redwood tree which used to mark the turn-off on Soldiers Settlement Road, one of a line planted by a local cocky 120 years ago.
"It's strange to say it but with the colour, it felt like carving meat," sculptor Chris Elliot said.
He spent a good part of six months at this fork in the road in rural Hawke's Bay chainsawing the six-metre stump of a 40-metre redwood into two soldiers which stand long and lean, back to back, their eyes and rifles lowered.
Chris Elliott did much of the detailed carving alongside master carver Hugh Tareha Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Working from a rough pencil sketch, he and the late Hugh Tareha created a "digger" in a slouch hat facing towards Sydney with his kiwi cobber in a lemon-squeezer pointing the other way towards Napier.
The tree branched into two not far up its trunk so having two soldiers worked well, Elliott said.
Elliott was the "details man" using finer-headed tools while Tareha, a master carver, did the broad work. Tareha died suddenly before the sculpture was finished.
Working from the top down, Tareha had completed the bulk of the job and reached the base before he died.
The late Hugh Tareha at the start of carving Rissington's ANZAC sculpture Photo: Chris Elliott
Elliott continued and emerging from the broader planes came the folds in the tunic, puttee socks, an arm resting on a satchel, solemn faces.
Bronwyn Farquharson and Ruth Dawson, the drivers of the sculpture project Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Ruth Dawson and Bronwyn Farquharson drove the project and feel Tareha's been keeping watch as the carving neared completion.
They have been in fundraising and organising mode for three years, raising $60,000 worth of donations and services to bring the dying redwood to life again.
Rissington has deep connections with the world wars like many small New Zealand towns Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Connections with the world wars run deep at Rissington. Farquharson's family inherited one of several ballot farms in the district - land allocated to soldiers who returned from the wars.
Many local young men signed up to fight including youths who attended scout camps at the historic Weka Point nearby.
Anzac services are held every year here too at the local war memorial site across the road from the redwood sculpture.
Locals say the Anzac sculpture is an example of how a small community can stay strong and have a focal point even with school, store and community hall long gone.
"It's just getting out there and saying what we want to do, especially (to) the bigger firms, but then some private people came on board that have a passion about the community, the same as we do," Farquharson said.
Rissington resident Bronwyn Farquharson tidies up before Armistice Day on 11 November 2022 for a ceremony marking the completion of the sculpture Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Remembrance tealights made from the redwood off-cuts by another Rissington local Bryan Nichols. Koha for them will help pay for the sculpture's upkeep, he says. Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
