Patrons at Queenstown’s Cowboys, in Searle Lane, got a shock recently to find its infamous mechanical bull - a permanent fixture since 2003 - gone, with a cardboard tombstone and a bunch of flowers left in its place.
Nicknamed ‘Bradley’, thousands of punters have taken him for a spin, many of them hobbling away with the bruises and, on occasion, a missing or chipped tooth to prove it, including Riversdale stars Cole Sprouse and KJ Apa.
In a post on social media, Cowboys said the bull was "buggered, bucked and broken", and offered it for auction on Trade Me, encouraging "all past patrons, cowboys, cowgirls, half the British Penal Colony, aka Australians, and all the ladies who truly had ‘the best 8 seconds of their lives"’ to bid on it.
It sold for the bargain price of $1311.
There’s some good news, though. Mountain Scene understands Bradley 2.0 should be installed within the next week.
- By Olivia Judd
