The sculpture is intended also to commemorate all soldiers from rural New Zealand who left farms and homes and went off to war.
In 1939, Ted D'Auvergene (33), who worked on the family farm, volunteered in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force three days after recruitment began.
Farmers were considered essential for the war effort but Mr d'Auvergne, a territorial with the Canterbury Yeomanry Cavalry for 13 years, had no qualms about joining up and served in the 27 Machine Gun Battalion.
He was also deaf in one ear but that also did not hold back d'Auvergne whom Jim Sullivan described in a booklet, Ted's Bottle, as being a ''likeable larrikin.''
His story has now become a part of South Canterbury folklore - how he had a farewell beer in his local at the Waihao Forks Hotel. In those days the railway extended through the Waimate Gorge to Waihao Forks.
Mr d'Auvergne had ordered two bottles of beer. He had finished one when a train whistle signalled the train was about leave to begin his journey to Burnham Military Camp and then overseas.
Mr d'Auvergne told publican George Provan to hold the bottle of beer until he returned.
He never did.
Mr d'Auvergne died in the Battle of Crete in June, 1941, after being shot by a sniper.
The bottle of beer, now enshrined in a small case, has remained unopened in the bar at the hotel ever since. It has been described as New Zealand's most unusual war memorial.
The idea for a sculpture came from a meeting of the Waimate Community Anzac Group, which has commissioned Don Paterson, who has sculptures around the country, for the project.
''We want this sculpture to also commemorate all soldiers from rural New Zealand who left small communities and went off to war,'' he said.
''The annual Ted's Bottle Anzac service attracts hundreds of people and is a very special part of our district's Anzac services. I am fully behind this piece of art being commissioned and installed outside the Waihao Forks Hotel.''
Mr d'Auvergne's great-niece Rosa Westgarth, of Timaru, said the sculpture was a great idea.
''I think it's fantastic; it's going to be amazing for the district.''
Earlier this year, Mrs Westgarth and her sister Jan Gibson, of Wanaka, travelled to Crete to view Mr d'Auvergne's grave and to track down the family of a 16-year-old boy, Yakavos Kalionzakis, who buried Mr d'Auvergne.
''Ted was shot in the chest and the boy fed him eggs and goat's milk.
''Ted gave him a photo of himself and a woman. The boy thought it was Ted's wife but it was his sister.
''He gave him a letter as well, and an address, and he asked him to post the letter back to New Zealand.''
When Mr d'Auvergne died, Mr Kalionzakis buried him in the orchard where he had been hiding. The body was later taken for burial in the Allied War Cemetery at Souda.
Mr Kalionzakis was taken prisoner by German soldiers and could not post the letter. Three years later, he found the letter had been destroyed but the photo and address remained.
He rewrote the letter as he remembered it and posted it to Mr d'Auvergne's stepmother.
Mrs Westgarth and her sister learned on their trip to Crete that Mr Kalionzakis had died several years before but they met his son and family.
They also met historian Costas Mamalakis who each year, on the anniversary of the Battle of Crete, drives from Heraklion to the Souda cemetery.
There he places an unopened bottle of beer on Mr d'Auvergne's grave.
-By Chris Tobin
