A rumour has been started online that an everyday activity is actually illegal in New Zealand.
The rumour that gardening – that’s right, gardening – is illegal in New Zealand, is a prank that’s been in the making since 2014, but it has been reinvigorated this week thanks to one user’s new upload.
Reddit user WhyNotSmeagol started the whole thing in 2014, telling the world:
“My friend told me he heard that you can’t have a garden in New Zealand. That it is illegal to have it. I’m not sure if this is true. I googled about it, but got no founds. Could you guys please tell me? And please no hate I know this question might be insulting to some of you.”
Kiwis were quick to jump on the comment, playing along with the ruse.
“My brother was killed in the Moutua gardens protest,” wrote one user. “Every day I live in fear, alienated by my community for having relatives marked by the Green Thumb. I envy the dead.”
“What is a garden?” wrote another. “Sorry I’m a younger Kiwi and haven’t heard of this before. Holy shit I just googled it. So pretty. Why aren’t we taught this stuff in school?”
Things got even more out of hand this year however, when Reddit user DinaDinaDinaBatman uploaded a photo of her mum “Flouting the law, growing her own avocado in her illegal garden.”
Reddit exploded, with Kiwis continuing to share their stories of police raids over strawberry patches, stolen veggie patches and demands for concrete to be poured over their back gardens.
The rest of the world took everything a bit too literally, with one Reddit user writing: “I’m from the US, is this for real?”
Another, from Finland, said the whole thing was “blowing my f–king mind,” stating that his parents even grow fruit on their small balcony.
The icing on the cake to this whole situation has to be a photo of protests in New Zealand being uploaded to Reddit with the caption “New Zealanders take to the streets to protest absurd gardening ban. Show them some solidarity!”
It was upvoted thousands of times, with people expressing their outrage at Kiwi’s inability to have their own gardens.
We think Twitter user Paul puts it best when he wrote: “Either the whole of New Zealand are master level trolls, or growing vegetables in your garden is actually illegal there?”
That would be the former Paul. And this is why you never ask the internet questions.
New Zealand wins at the internet
