An American on a working visa in New Zealand has shared the bizarre encounter at a Palmerston North traffic light that left them scratching their head.
The American, who is living and working in the Manawatū city, was confused by the recent encounter. Taking to Reddit, they said they were sitting at a traffic light when a fellow commuter offered them a beer.
"So I am sitting at a light and I hear, 'HEY!' from the car next to me and then he holds up a beer bottle and says, 'Wanna beer?' This is a first for me, does it happen a lot?" they wrote.
Kiwis were quick to jump in with their very own stories of bizarre traffic light behaviour, although most agreed being offered a beer wasn't a common interaction.
"I've lived in NZ my whole life and it's never happened to me, yet I still consider it to be very Kiwi behaviour. Usually you just get a fella wanting to wash your windscreen for beer money though," one person joked.
"We are sharing folk," another added. "I was out for a run two nights ago and got up the top of a local mountain (well big hill really) and there were some lads having a smoke and a beer in the sun. It was cranking hot and they offered me a cold beer as I prob looked pretty stuffed.
"I gladly took it, skulled it there and then after a quick thanks/'chur chur', headed back down the hill. Good lads."
However, another said they had experienced a very similar encounter in Palmerston North as well.
"[I] was in the car park at the supermarket whilst the wife went in for some things. Car next to me offers me a beer. He’d just won a bet or something and had bought a box. Seemed rude not to share the moment."
Another said the "random" nature of the encounter was the best part of it.
"Sometimes finding random people to take part in your fun is easy here," they wrote.
"While driving, in cars? No, never seen or heard that one before - maybe it's just a Palmy thing," another mused, while one added: "I've never had that happen to me at a traffic light. I think it just feels nice to share things."
The original poster has yet to confirm whether they took the offered beer.
The advice from the New Zealand Police website is that "even small amounts of alcohol can affect your driving, so if you drink at all, don't drive."
