New Zealand's quirkiest letterbox to be announced this weekend

 New Zealand’s quirkiest new letterbox will be unveiled this weekend.

   A North Auckland organisation put out the call three months ago, asking all DIY home-handy people to design the country’s quirkiest letterbox.

    Organisers of the competition, David and Geraldine Bayly of the Kaipara Coast Plant Centre & Sculpture Gardens at Kaukapakapa say the winner will be named on Saturday by their local postie, Carol Whitelaw.

   She drives 216km on her run putting mail into letterboxes every day and comes across quirky boxes including a vacuum cleaner, a microwave and a bicycle where the letters go in the basket.

   People visiting the exhibition, which opens Saturday, will be invited to slip their votes in to their favourite letterbox in a people’s choice which will run throughout the exhibition year before a 2011 winner is decided here on October 30 next year.

   ``We currently have quite a lot of letterbox entries that have arrived at our Sculpture Gardens,’’ David Bayly said today.

   ``We are expecting a few more before the exhibition opening and we have made the decision that we will accept more throughout the year.

   ``The inspiration for doing this best NZ letterbox project came when Geraldine and I took our family on holiday to Huia in the Waitakere Ranges. On our way we saw an amazing letterbox made by Iain Cathcart of Mangonui with big lips and plants in it, So that really sowed the seed for this event.

   ``We have received so many different letterboxes: mosaic, a plastic envelope box, boxes with cars, dolphins and kiwis, a box with the Eiffel Tower as its stand and even a knitted letterbox, which would be best used in a dry part of NZ. We would love to see more designs of course and the 2011people’s choice letterbox exhibition runs for 12 months.’’

   All the letterboxes are for sale at the Sculpture Gardens which opened two years ago and have attracted thousands of visitors from around New Zealand.  They also have scarecrows made by Helensville and Kaukapakapa pre-schoolers and sculptures made by primary school students.

   Bayly said they wanted to run the letterbox project this year as letterboxes were becoming less used as people and businesses communicated more b y email.

   ``I can’t help but wonder if the iconic NZ letter box will soon be a thing of the past?  Maybe a few more interesting letterboxes around the countryside will help keep the excitement of going out to the letterbox alive for another generation.’’