Forget road trips, New Zealand lines up cars outside McDonald's as lockdown ends

For hundreds of New Zealanders coming out of weeks in lockdown, cars firmly parked outside their homes served as means to an extremely missed activity - binging on McDonalds fast food. As wacky as it may read, scores of people in the country lined up their cars outside drive-thrus of the fast-food chain to finally and once again get a fix of their favourite burger and fries after PM Jacinda Ardern eased restrictions in place to check the spread of Covid-19.

Local media reported that in several places in cities like Christchurch and Auckland, cars lined up since wee morning hours on Tuesday to place orders at McDonalds outlets. To maintain social distancing, the restruants were not allowing dine-in but that did not stop locals from lining up their cars to make use of the drive-thru facility. In some places, the queuing of cars began from midnight.

Cars outside a McDonald's outlet in Auckland.

While there were no traffic snarls on city roads that were reported, scenes outside McDonalds outlets soon began resembling car dealership outlets rather than a typical fast-food joint.

Cars line up at a McDonald's drive-through in Auckland.

MP Christopher Bishop also tweeted a selfie with his family enjoying a burger in his car. He would later add that he had reached the fast-food outlet at 6.45 in the morning for a bite.

New Zealand has been one of the leading countries to have imposed a five-week lockdown strictly and is credited to have checked on the spread of Covid-19. People were prohibited from taking their cars out unless it was for essential service. As such, the country reported under 2,000 positive Covid-19 cases and only 19 deaths.