In the late 1960's, the New Zealand town had built a Big Rocket Ship, and then a Big L&P Bottle on a busy street.
That bottle was deemed too hazardous to remain there, but in the Summer of 1969, the Paeroa Borough Council and Innes Tartan built a smaller one (about 20 feet, or 6-7 metres tall).
And so, the World's Largest L&P Bottle (seen in pictures here) resides in Paeroa, and has been located at its current site at Ohinemuri Reserve since 2002.
Paeroa is located about halfway between New Zealand's largest city Auckland (90 minutes northwest driving in your rental car) and another urban centre, Tauranga (75 minutes southeast). Paeroa has a population of about 4 thousand – but its WORLDWIDE FAME is thanks to being the birthplace of Lemon & Paeroa, or L&P for short. The popular New Zealand soda was traditionally made by mixing carbonated mineral water from Paeroa's natural springs with lemon juice.
These days it's bottled by Coca-Cola. Over the years, L&P's comical ad slogan "World famous in New Zealand" has become a popular New Zealand saying.
In 2005, "Sweet As L&P" was introduced, featuring artificial sweetener aspartame. Its slogan was "World Famous in New Zealand since quite recently”. L&P bottles currently say, “World Famous in New Zealand since ages ago”!
Drive your rental car to the corner of Normanby Road and Te Aroha Road in Paeroa, and snap a few photos with this Big Thing To See in New Zealand!
