It was a textbook relocation on Saturday for Rakaia’s giant salmon.
Tarbotton Land & Civil transported the fish sculpture to the Waltham studio where it will undergo a refurbishment.
The crew left about 5am with their fishy cargo on the back of a truck, secured in a cradle with a mattress underneath, arriving about one hour and 15 minutes later.
It had the previous afternoon been hooked, cut and craned from its base to the truck, which then parked up overnight.
Business development manager Tim Tarbotton said the journey up the highway then on to the Southern Motorway into Christchurch was without incident.
The 3.6m-wide load necessitated two pilot vehicles, and bridge closures at Rakaia, Rakaia overbridge and Selwyn, but the rest of the way was along a single lane.
‘‘We are very happy with how it all went to plan,’’ Tarbotton said.
But he admitted it was a spectacle for some.
‘‘It did look quite ridiculous going down the motorway, there was definitely a few heads turning,’’ he said.
Fellow motorists on the road could not help but want to capture it.
‘‘You could tell they were trying to Snapchat or film.’’
Tarbotton said the company had done the job for free, offering to do the transport to Christchurch and back following the district council contacting it about the project.
‘‘We thought it was a pretty cool, iconic thing to be involved with, not something that you do everyday.’’
Other companies helping out included Ashburton Crane, Cullimore Engineering, Treetech and Stacey and John from S & J Piloting.
The refurbishment is expected to take up to 12 weeks.
