"My mate trying to park", it says on the meme with NZTA adding the caption "Remind you of anyone?".
The image shows the ship sticking out across both lanes.
NZTA then jumped in the comments and provided a link to how to safely reverse parallel park, writing "tell your mate to check this out if their parking skills need a tune-up."
NZTA's meme has since gone viral and had thousands of comments with Kiwis outing their mates who might need to brush up on their skills.
"That one time long ago I tried to parallel park but didn't make it," one person joked.
Another said: "Still an easier vessel to park than my big red."
"Just like our bus drivers," a third joked.
Salvage teams on Monday freed the colossal container ship stuck for nearly a week in the Suez Canal, ending a crisis that had clogged one of the world's most vital waterways and halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce.
Helped by the high tide, a flotilla of tugboats wrenched the bulbous bow of the skyscraper-sized Ever Given from the canal's sandy bank, where it had been firmly lodged since last Wednesday.
The Ever Given, a Panama-flagged cargo ship is accompanied by Suez Canal tugboats as it moves in the Suez Canal, Egypt this morning. Photo / via AP
The tugs blared their horns in jubilation as they guided the Ever Given through the water after days of futility that had captivated the world, drawing scrutiny and social media mockery.
The giant vessel headed toward the Great Bitter Lake, a wide stretch of water halfway between the north and south ends of the canal, where it will be inspected, said Evergreen Marine Corp, a major Taiwan-based shipping company that operates the ship.
"We pulled it off!" said Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis, the salvage firm hired to extract the Ever Given, in a statement. "I am excited to announce that our team of experts, working in close collaboration with the Suez Canal Authority, successfully refloated the Ever Given … thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again."
The Ever Given being towed along the Suez Canal after being freed. Picture / Twitter, Capt. Yousif
Buffeted by a sandstorm, the Ever Given had crashed into a bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal, about 6km north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez. That created a massive traffic jam that held up US$9 billion a day in global trade and strained supply chains already burdened by the coronavirus pandemic.
At least 367 vessels, carrying everything from crude oil to cattle, are backed up as they wait to traverse the canal. Dozens of others have taken the long, alternative route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern tip — a 5000km detour that costs ships hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel and other costs.
Egypt, which considers the canal a source of national pride and crucial revenue, already has lost over $95 million in tolls, according to the data firm Refinitiv. Even as salvage work continued, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, who for days was silent about the crisis, praised Monday's events.
"Egyptians have succeeded in ending the crisis," he wrote on Facebook, "despite the massive technical complexity."
While the canal is now unblocked, it is unclear when traffic would return to normal. Analysts expect it could take at least another 10 days to clear the backlog on either end.
