It is one of the many intricately constructed lanterns on display this weekend for the Dunedin Midwinter Carnival, along with a video projection developed by Te Pukenga Otago Polytechnic students.
The event is being held at the church today and tomorrow from 6pm to 9pm.
Artist Rohana Weaver, who spent 150 hours over three months constructing the caterpillar, was looking forward to seeing her work come to life over the weekend.
Ms Weaver said the caterpillar was quite an intriguing character and would fit in well with the rest of the magical ensemble for this year’s theme: enchanted forest.
She had a personal love for making animals of all shapes and sizes, having contributed a "disco ball deer" at last year’s carnival.
The caterpillar towered eight to nine feet, or one-and-a-half husbands tall, she said.
While she enjoyed taking the time detailing the caterpillars face and its cat-like eyes, her main focus was on simply getting it through the door.
"Despite it being a really big space the doors to First Church are quite small.
"Having to keep the width under 1m wide to be able to manoeuvre it through the doors was a big constraint that we had to work within.
"Balancing the structure and strength aspect of it is always something to consider," Ms Weaver said.
Last year’s Midwinter Carnival had been postponed due to bad weather.
Midwinter Carnival marketing manager, Jess Covell, said this had given organisers insight in to running the carnival and they were prepared for the unlikely event of it being cancelled again.
She said the event would have been postponed by now if the weather had been of concern.
A lot more lanterns were being displayed inside, and those outside had been water-proofed with rain-resistant fabric.
Unless it was absolutely pouring, the carnival would go on without a hitch, she said.
