Australia Has A Rival For Novelty Oversized Landmarks
We’re a simple country, Australia. We don’t need flashy Eiffel Towers or psychedelic underground train rides – we’re just happy to bank on our natural beauty and friendly people to keep tourism strong. I mean, when it comes to tourist destinations – aside from the classics like Sydney Harbour and Uluru – we’ve pretty much just planted a bunch of weirdly oversized things everywhere and called it a day.
The Big Banana in Coffs Harbour, the Big Lobster in Kingston, the Big Guitar in Tamworth, the Big Tennis Racquet in Barellan – I could go on… no seriously, there’s so many. But lo and behold, we may not be the only country in the world with a fascination for “big things” – South Africa also has an impressive host of oversized roadside objects that have people being like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
First up they’ve got a giant post box in the small town of Calvinia, found on the Northern Cape of South Africa. The post box, which is in fact a disused water tank, stands at around six metres tall. The letters posted at this postbox actually receive a commemorative stamp of a flower. Cute!
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There’s also a giant shoe house, which – like that giant boot in New Zealand – can actually be rented out to guests. There’s a miniature museum, a gallery, a shop, a cave and tea garden tucked away in there too.
Then there’s the Rooiberg Winery. Not only will you be able to sample some of the most delicious wines in Africa (if not the world), there’s also a nine-metre tall red chair that sits out the back of the winery, complete with it’s own regular-sized table and chairs on top of the steel structure. It’s actually the largest chair on the continent – the more you know.
Now the last “big thing” here actually rivals something we hold very dear to us in Australia – our own Big Pineapple in Nambour. South Africa has their own Big Pineapple in the very Australian-sounding town of Bathurst. Their gigantic tropical fruit sits at an impressive 16.7 metres tall – a whole 70 CENTIMETRES TALLER THAN OURS. We were so close to being the victors.
Inside the Big Pineapple in South Africa you’ll find an auditorium that shows a 12 minute film on pineapple production, as well as an exhibition on local agriculture and an observation deck.
(Lead image: left; annabellerina/Instagram, right; laurenmcglen/Instagram)
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