A comedic video on TikTok showcasing Porirua as a "hidden gem" tourist destination is racking up hundreds of thousands of views, confusing some viewers and amusing many more.
The clip uses footage from other destinations around the world to paint a picture of Porirua as a beautiful paradise.
It was shared to the TikTok account of @churrbadda, who uses the platform for comedy and has close to 20,000 followers at the time of publishing.
"Welcome to paradise... you've never been to the most beautiful place in the world," the clip says with footage of the creator zooming in on the North Island city on a world map.
Various locations from the Wellington city are then listed - including Cannons Creek, Waitangirua, Ascot Park, Titahi Bay and Ranui Heights - over a compilation of idyllic footage taken from many places in the world that are not Porirua. Footage of Las Vegas is labelled "North City Plaza" in the clip.
Despite @churrbadda including the hashtag '#fiction' in the video's brief caption, some international viewers appear to have been duped.
"It looks so nice in Porirua, I'm going to move my extended family there!" exclaimed one.
"Booking my ticket right now," added another.
"Putting this on the bucket list," said a third.
However, the majority of viewers are clearly in on the joke.
"There's about to be a lot of disappointed tourists in Porirua," said one with a laughing emoji.
"Think they'll fit in with the disappointed locals," replied @churrbadda.
The video has also been reposted on Twitter with the caption: "This video has neatly 20,000 views on TikTok which is enough that I’m inclined to think at least one person might book a holiday because of it."
That tweet has received over 85,000 views and another large discussion of its own, much of which consists of laughing emojis.
