Taupo deer farmers build pirate ship out of junk
Taupo deer farmer Murray Matuschka and his grandson Gary Mansfield have created a pirate ship sculpture out of nothing but the junk they find lying around their farm.
The last thing you might expect to see at Fieldays is a pirate ship.
But thanks to deer farmers Murray Matuschka and his grandson Gary Mansfield, that is exactly what will greet visitors to the AgTrader Sculpture competition.
The inventive Taupo duo crafted the sculpture out of junk found lying around the farm.
Matuschka has brought the Black Pearl to Fieldays as part of the competition.
It is a metal ship made out of old bike chains, fence post straps, bike pistons, hinges and other pieces of scrap metal.
“It’s very hard to make a junk sculpture because you don’t have a lot of scope,” Matuschka said.
“We’re not professionals. We’re just farmers.”
Unsure of how long it has taken them to create it, Matuschka said it was a project he and his grandson could work on together in their spare time.
“It might be a wet day and we would go out and work on it for maybe half an hour at a time,” he said.
Matuschka and his family own the Kitenui Deer Farm just out of Taupo.
“We have about 800 deer and other animals like zebras, buffalos.
“We have a working farm so we also get a lot of tourist who stop in to see the farm. “
Matuschka has entered the competition eight times over the years.
He has the other sculptures on display at his farm. Past entries include aeroplanes, horses and smaller ships.
“We have a giant room with hundreds of deer antlers on the walls. And we have [the sculptures] all on display there.”
Matuscha said the rest of his family are big fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and that is how he got the idea.
“They are all blown away by it,” he said
“The Pearl is the biggest one of these (ships) we have made,” he said.
“Every time I have entered I have either won it, or taken second place.”
The competition will be judged later this week.
Matuschka and his grandson are just happy to have finished their creation.
The Black Pearl will be on display all week behind the main pavilion at the Rural Press Stand with the all the other competitors.
