Celebrating Rainbow's End icon in Waihi

The Rainbows End rainbow when it stopped in Tauranga while touring NZ looking for a new home. It will now officially be adopted by the Waihi community this weekend. Photo/file

The Waihi community celebrates its new landmark, the Rainbow's End rainbow on Saturday.

GO Waihi plans a community get-together at Victoria Park from 10am-1pm to mark completion of the project and meet those involved with it.

Activities will include rock hunting and giveaways for families, including some free family passes for Rainbow's End.

Since the start of the month, a Go Waihi competition has entrants taking a photo featuring the rainbow with prizes up for grabs.

Go waihi says the project has been an interesting18 months, starting with Rainbow's End looking for a new home for their iconic entrance way rainbow. They looked at several towns, including Waihi.

They contacted Hauraki District Mayor John Tregidga who got in touch with GO Waihi Coordinator Brian Gentil.

"From a supposed flat sign about two metres by three metres it turned out to be a little bit bigger and heavier," Mr Gentil said.

"One and a half metres wide, three metres high, seven metres long and 1.3 tonnes - there was a bit of extra work involved."

With a small budget GO Waihi said it asked the business community to help and they were very responsive.

After the structural engineer's report got signed off, Carters Contractors stored it, moved it and dug the base for the foundations before craning it onto its plinths, which makes it about5m high now.

Brownmore Construction and Firths came to the party with the foundations, concrete and workers, while Duncan Cook and Sel Baker did what builders do best and put all the framework together as the rainbow was raised onto plinths.

Alitech provided all the metal strips for the joins, Mark Spiers Roofing Ltd sorted the rubber and waterproofed it and Warren and the crew at Mitre 10 Waihi came to the party with loads of wood, ply and hardware.

Resene supplied the paint and Trade Sales representative Charlie Skarratt, organised Dave Dudek and the team from Waihi Beach Home Decorators to give the rainbow a fresh coat of paint and a new sparkle.

Hauraki District Council provided safety fencing and advice on safety and Waihi Scaffolding Hire framed it up for the workers to do their job.

"Without everyone's can-do attitude we just wouldn't have been able to achieve this," Mr Gentil said.

"It really has been amazing the enthusiastic response I got from everybody. They didn't hesitate, and I'm so grateful of their support."

Get your picture with the rainbow GO Waihi's Shot of Gold Promotion is still on until the end of October. Take a photo of yourself, your family and friends featuring Waihi's new rainbow, then email it to info@waihi.org.nz, one per email, with your name and contact details and you'll go in the draw to win prizes.