Cardrona’s bra fence has raised almost $150,000 for breast cancer research in the past seven years.

It has also been a source of entertainment and fun - plus a meaningful tribute for many - since the first bra was hung back in 1998.

Cardrona farmer John Lee, whose roadside fence mysteriously became decorated with bras on Christmas Day 25 years ago, was soon receiving boxes of bras posted from around the world from women wanting to contribute. 

Within a year or two there were 800 bras lining his farm fence on Cardrona Valley Road.

“John would’ve loved to turn it into a fundraiser then, but there was some animosity and controversy,” John’s wife Mary said. 

“Some saw it as an eyesore.”

John Lee (right) first found his roadside fence decorated with bras at Christmas in 1998.

Most people in the valley loved it though, she said. 

“Leah Alison brought a whole bunch one night after she encouraged a busload of schoolteachers heading to the Cardrona Pub to whisk off their bras.”

In 2014 the bra fence was moved along the road to a safer spot opposite the Cardrona Alpine Resort turn-off on John and Mary’s daughter’s property.

Soon after, Cardrona tour guide Kelly Spaans turned it into a NZ Breast Cancer Foundation fundraiser and local sculptor Liz Hall even created a limestone bust which was installed by the donation box. 

Kelly said the bra fence has become a beautiful way to pay tribute to lost loved ones and friends, with husbands bringing their late wives’ bras after they’ve passed from breast cancer, and patients bringing theirs. 

“I get a lot of bras posted to me by grieving families, often with beautiful letters, asking me to put their bras on the fence,” Kelly said. “It’s touched so many lives.”

Donations made to the box come from all sorts of currencies and some are very generous, she said.

The two people who started it all - who insist on remaining anonymous - had no idea where it would lead.

“It’s fantastic, phenomenal that it’s now raising all that money,” one of them said. “The Lees really embraced it and big credit to John as the custodian. He really took care of it.” 

Kelly is in discussions with the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation about getting a QR code on the donation box to make on-site digital donations possible. 

PHOTOS: Queenstown App