ALERT, ALERT: A troll job has been spotted on TikTok. Presenting Porirua as a "hidden gem" spot, a travel influencer's wet dream, and a place with unrivalled beauty, it's possible over 300,000 people have fallen victim to this false representation.
According to the video posted by @churrbadda, which has earned hundreds of thousands of views, the town contains palm tree-laden beaches, breathtakingly beautiful glacier lakes, and fields built for frolicking in as the sun sets.
“You’ve never been to the most beautiful place in the world?” writing on the TikTok reads as we see the Google Earth globe spinning. “Well then, let me show you,” it continues as we zoom in on New Zealand and then, finally, Porirua.
welcome to paradise
(FYI: if you didn't know, those photos aren't actually of Porirua. The hashtag #fiction is under the TikTok, but not everyone noticed that and a whooole lotta people fell for it. Just to be clear - Porirua ain't built like that, this TikTok is having a laugh).
Drax Project commented on the TikTok saying they hadn’t noticed how good little old Porirua is.
“Wow didn’t realise how incredible Porirua actually is 🔥🔥,” they wrote.
Other comments were joining in on the fun.
“About 10 other countries in Porirua 🔥🔥,” one said.
“Someone’s gonna see this and book flights 😂😂😂,” another predicted.
“Wow that’s amazing,” a third added. “It certainly has changed since the last time I was there.”
“I really shouldn’t have blinked when driving through Porirua, I missed all of this,” one more unfortunate traveller said.
For real now though, I hope some rich person has come across the video and bought first-class tickets to Porirua. By the pure number of viewers the TikTok has, there has to be at least one person who’s at least thought about it.
That’s what one person on Twitter speculated when the TikTok only had 20,000 views. Let’s all keep an eye on Porirua tourist numbers over the next month or so.
