Cowabunga Exhibition, Dana Point
New Zealand knows a lot about cows. Our dairy industry is the country’s largest exporter (milk, dairy products, meat). We often seem to have a reputation that’s more to do with sheep, but my experience with driving the roads of Aotearoa (Maori for New Zealand), I’m far more likely to pass a paddock of black and white four legged critters, than the fluffy white kind.
So, what could be more of a perfect weekend activity for this kiwi family, but a little cow hunt? And I’m not talking the ‘armed with a gun’ type of hunting.
Dana Point is probably our closest beach city, located about 15mins from Mission Viejo down the ‘5’ (that’s the main freeway between LA and San Diego). At the start of July, sixteen life sized cow statues started appearing on the streets as part of Cowabunga Dana Point, Got Milk? exhibition.
The ‘herd’ are painted in various California culture themes as a tribute to the history, culture and icons of this American state. At the end of summer, the statues will be auctioned off for Charity (see www.cows4camp.com for more information).
We discovered that cow spotting makes for a great couple of hours of family entertainment. Although we couldn’t find any information or maps of the exact locations of the statues, by wandering around the city centre, and taking a ride on the free trolley circuit, we spotted the majority of statues on display.
Each cow is riding a surfboard plaque (hey, this is California – surfs up dude), which displays information on the art work and artist.
Artist Kyler Barnes wanted to create the brightest and most exuberant cow with the creation of Mona! The Shining Cow!
Milk Man, by Man One, is a throw back to the days when milk was actually personally delivered to your home, with graffiti wording ‘milk’ on one side, and ‘man’ on the other of the bovine.
Showing their true New Zealand form, and to the amusement of those watching from a nearby cafe, the Twin Tornados attempted to milk a few of the cows as we explored the statues. You can take the Tornados out of NZ, but you can’t take NZ out of the Tornados…
I particularly liked the Golden Cow, by Roberto Salas. It is decorated with the same reflective vinyl of street signs, so shows as black and white during the day, but shines golden at night when car lights reflect off the statue.
We started chatting to a local, at one of the statues, and discovered that Dana Point actually has a cow history. Imagine my horror when he started to tell us about how the cows would be pitched from the top of the Dana Point bluffs, down to the ships below.
Here I am (NZ farming background, remember), visualising people throwing cow carcasses (or even live cows) over the cliffs to the waiting boats below. During the same conversation, hubby was imagining them being driven over the side somehow as a herd. The expression on my face must have alerted the poor man to my dilemma – it was the actually the hides (skins) of the cows that were thrown over the bluffs, to be transported to San Diego to be tanned, and turned into leather. Phew! Glad that was clarified.
Apparently Dana Point has done a similar exhibitions in the past, with artistic elephant statues, However this is their first cow statue exhibition.
Being mid summer, and having forgotten to throw our stroller into the car, the kids only lasted about 7 cows by foot. So, we hopped on the local FREE trolley to discover the other bovines on display (albeit from afar) and get a lay of the land.
It was our first wander around the Dana Point area, and we look forward to checking out the cliffs and beach on our next adventure.
An udderly fantastic family day out. Cowabunga, dude!
Jandals and Jet Planes 
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