In a bid to make a local road safer, one Manawatū farmer has come up with a rather bright idea - planting tens of thousands of sunflowers to slow cars down.
A field filled with sunflowers is not what you'd expect to see on a busy rural road in Pahiatua, but these sunflowers are more than just a pretty face.
"Our threat is this really busy road... we really wanted to be able to slow the traffic down and I thought how do we do this and I thought sunflowers are the obvious choice," says Mangamaire Sunflower Field owner Abbe Hoare.
Last year Hoare got up at 5am every day to plant 47,000 sunflower seeds. Now they're in bloom, she's already seen a difference.
"I do think that it's definitely slowed the traffic down," Hoare says.
Local police say they are pleased.
"We think this is a really good initiative. However, we'd encourage people to stop, rather than take their eyes off the road. Stop, have a look, smell the flowers," Police Sergeant Brad Hall says.
People were certainly are stopping to smell the flowers, with Jetstar even popping it on TikTok drawing more attention to the field.
The sunflower field's only been open for six days and already they've had more than 1000 visitors, at one stage it got so busy they had to lock the gate.
"Everyone is so supportive, I've loved having all these people here and sharing it," Hoare says.
A beautiful road safety idea that's sure to brighten your day.
