London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Dargaville: Sign prank puts Kaipara metropolis on the map – NZ Herald

What do you do when your hometown is left off a signpost pointing the way to the world’s greatest cities?

The answer, of course, is that you add it yourself.

That appears to be what someone has done to the world-famous signpost at Te Rerenga Wairua, or Cape Reinga, which now boasts a pointer indicating the distance to Dargaville alongside London, Sydney, Tokyo and Los Angeles.

It’s not clear how long the Dargaville sign has been there — it’s so well executed it may have been hiding in plain sight for months — but a check in the Advocate archive proves it definitely wasn’t there when the signs were installed back in 2008.

Matt Browning, from Rotorua, may not be the first visitor to spot the Dargaville patriot’s handiwork but he was the first to bring it to national attention via his Instagram page.

Browning said the cheeky addition summed up all that was great about New Zealand.

“I love it. I’ve travelled a lot but there’s something about the Kiwi attitude, the cheekiness. We don’t take ourselves too seriously.”

“It’s quirky and fun that someone has said, ‘I think Dargaville should be on the map, and I’m going to see to it myself’. I think it speaks to the best of New Zealand really.”

Browning said the sign was so well made it took a keen eye to notice it was out of place.

He spotted it only because he worked a lot with fonts so he realised there was something peculiar about the G in Dargaville.

On closer inspection, it turned out that was because the Dargaville sign, unlike the others, had been meticulously hand-painted. The sign has been further embellished with a white note pointing the way to ‘Trev’s’.

Browning, who has a software business, was visiting friends at Rangiputa when he took a trip up to Cape Reinga on Saturday.

Former Kaipara mayor Graeme Ramsey, who lives at Baylys Beach, just outside Dargaville, praised the mystery signmaker’s initiative.

“It’s about time Dargaville was there among the other great cities of the world. I applaud them for putting Dargaville in its rightful place.”

It’s not the first time the famous Cape Reinga signpost has been in the news.

In 2008 vandals snapped off all the pointers, which were then replaced with sturdier wooden versions.

And in 2013 an observant reporter travelling the length of New Zealand noticed the Cape Reinga signpost claimed Bluff was 1452km away — while the signpost at Bluff gave the distance to Cape Reinga as only 1401km.

The missing 51km was never found.