{"id":500482,"date":"2026-06-29T03:35:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T03:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/500482\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T03:35:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T03:35:17","slug":"hokitikas-famous-driftwood-sign-destroyed-in-suspected-vandalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/500482\/","title":{"rendered":"Hokitika’s famous driftwood sign destroyed in suspected vandalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hokitika’s famous driftwood sign has been destroyed in a suspected act of vandalism, with the landmark’s creator saying he witnessed a person dismantling it and was warned the sign would be knocked down again if he rebuilt it.<\/p>\n

Don Neale, who has maintained the beachfront landmark since first building it in 2001, said the man made the threat when he spoke with him following the incident.<\/p>\n

“If he wants to play his game, I’ll let him play his game \u2014 I’m not going to get involved in it. I’ll just wait,” Neale told 1News.<\/p>\n

He said he planned to rebuild the sign as summer approached, and would speak with the man again before doing so.<\/p>\n

The sign became a permanent fixture on the Hokitika beachfront in 2013 when a rock wall was built in front of town. Neale had been maintaining it ever since, visiting every few days to check on it and replace rotting driftwood.<\/p>\n

“Tourists hang off it more than they should and knock it around a little bit,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Don<\/p>\n

Don Neale first built the beachfront landmark in 2001. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

The sign, one of the West Coast’s most photographed attractions, had been knocked down by storms a handful of times over the years, including ex-Cyclone Fehi in 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Neale said he was consistently amazed by the number of people who came to see the sculpture, and that locals were disappointed it had been dismantled.<\/p>\n

“It’s kind of my sculpture, but it kind of belongs to the whole town in a way. I think everyone takes a bit of pride in it.”<\/p>\n

Police said inquiries were being undertaken following damage to the sign, but that no charges had been laid at this stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hokitika’s famous driftwood sign has been destroyed in a suspected act of vandalism, with the landmark’s creator saying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,273,42,43,40,38,41,39,1241],"class_list":["post-500482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-environment","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-west-coast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}