Somewhere along the scenic drive between Queenstown and Wanaka in New Zealand, among clear blue skies, mountains, greenery and pretty lavender fields, there’s an odd spot. You’ll want to hit the brakes, stop by the road and pull out your camera.
On a 40-metre fence in the middle of a field in Cardrona, lie over a thousand bras in every colour, shape and size. Everyone stops for an Instagram-worthy shot, and often to contribute a bra of their own. The fence has become so popular, it’s now called Bradrona.
It started almost as a joke. One evening during the Christmas – New Year holidays in 1999, four drunk woman decided to hang their bras on a fence, as a silly treat for drivers passing by. Eventually, local women decided to join the party by adding their bras to the mix, and soon the fence was covered in the lingerie.
To anyone familiar with New Zealand, this won’t seem that unusual. Kiwis have a habit of lining things up on fences. In other parts of the country, there is a shoe fence, a toothbrush fence and a hubcap fence.
At Cardrona, many locals grumbled that the fence was making the country look perverse, and was a distraction for drivers. At one point, thieves were picking the loot off by the armload. But soon more bras would appear.
The fence eventually moved to private property, namely the Cardrona Horse Treks & Quad Tours & The Cardrona Distillery & Museum. The grumblers went quiet. The thief disappeared. And the fence began to get famous.
- If you don’t have a spare bra on you when you visit, you can send one to 2125, Cardrona Valley Road, RD1, Wanaka 9381, New Zealand.
- Women send bras from all over, and the fence gets periodically refreshed – older, weathered, tired-looking bras are removed to make way for brighter, newer ones.
- The bra fence cannot sag. It need support to bring in tourism and donations.
On the site’s Facebook page, visitors leave moving messages. In December, an Australian woman, Lee Rankin, wrote that her friend Brady, who had battled cancer for over 20 years, was due for a biopsy the day she spotted the fence. She took the sight as a good sign and said she appreciates what Bradrona is doing for breast cancer survivors.
Entry is free. The location is beautiful. Those who come to see the fence tend to linger on, taking pictures of the landscape. However, it’s a nice gesture to leave a donation in the pretty pink box that stands out among all the cups. The money supports New Zealand’s Breast Cancer Foundation. In peak travel season, there’s no space in the donation box. So contributors visit www.newzealandbreastcancerfoundation.nz/donate instead.
