Paeroa L and P Bottle

Lemon and Paeroa began in the early 1900s when the naturally carbonated mineral water from a spring at Paeroa was bottled and mixed with lemon, and the drink became well enough established to be sold nationally - it is now made by a multinational and no longer uses the Paeroa spring, a fact the town lives with. The giant bottle at the highway corner was erected in the 1960s, moved and refurbished since, and stands about seven metres tall. It is a photograph stop and nothing more, which the town does not pretend otherwise about; the slogan on the label, world famous in New Zealand, is a joke that has become the standard way New Zealanders describe anything of purely local renown. Paeroa itself is a small town at the foot of the Karangahake Gorge with a row of antique shops. Most people are on the way to the Coromandel or the gorge walkways.

The main sights

• The seven-metre bottle - the highway-corner landmark.
• The slogan - world famous in New Zealand, now a national joke.
• The antique shops - the town's other trade.
• The Karangahake Gorge - the reason most traffic is passing.

When to go

Any time; it is a five-minute stop on the way somewhere else.

Practical notes

It is one large fibreglass bottle at a road junction. The drink is no longer made with Paeroa spring water. There is nothing else at the site.

Nearby

Karangahake Gorge is east; Thames and the Coromandel are north.