A British visitor was perplexed by signs commonly seen on roads around New Zealand. Photo / Unsplash
A British visitor was perplexed by signs commonly seen on roads around New Zealand. Photo / Unsplash
A British tourist travelling to New Zealand was bewildered by a sign she saw dotted around the country, thinking it could be for a cult or political party.
Sarah Boyce, from Britain, was driving around New Zealand when she started spotting a peculiar sign, with a line of five-digit numbers and the phrase “it starts here”.
Boyce posted about the signs to New Zealand Travel Tips (NZTT), a private Facebook group with more than 95,400 members, to see if anyone knew their meaning.
“I’m curious about signs that we’ve seen. They’ve been across both Islands but not as noticeable in the South,” she said, adding that she saw the most around the Coromandel Peninsula.
Boyce had tried searching online for information about them but couldn’t find an answer.
“They look a bit like the ones we’d have to signify support of a particular political party. Or maybe it’s a cult?” she wrote. “Or maybe it’s just something entirely more mundane and practical?”
In a comment below her post, Boyce revealed she had asked New Zealanders but even they were stumped.
Dozens of commenters quick to share thoughts on roadside signs
The post, shared on Thursday, quickly gained more than 45 comments as people helped identify the signs.
Soon after the post went online, a woman shared an image of a sign along with the question: “Haha like these??”
Members of the NZTT Facebook page quickly worked out what the signs were for. Photo / Facebook
Boyce confirmed the sign photographed was like the ones she had seen and others offered an explanation for their purpose.
“These are supply numbers for dairy farms. Each farm with the sign described is a Fonterra milk supplier and the number is unique to each farm,” one person wrote.
“Definitely just a farm identification number for Fonterra (the largest dairy company in the Southern Hemisphere),” another explained.
One person wrote that Boyce must have asked city-based Kiwis about the signs.
“Ahh, you asked townies... Unfortunately, they wouldn’t even be able to tell you if the cattle beast standing in front of them is a cow or bull,” they wrote.
Another wrote they had secretly hoped the signs were for a cult.
“I think it is, isn’t it?” another person chimed in.
This isn’t the first time visitors have been baffled by New Zealand buildings, slang or appliances.
Meanwhile, in 2022, an American woman publicly urged other tourists to visit one of New Zealand’s best “attractions”, which many Kiwis would never consider a tourist hotspot.
