New Zealanders have been on a mandatory fast-food 'fast' for four weeks but that's all about to change.
With takeaway restaurants preparing to reopen for contactless delivery on Tuesday, hungry Kiwis will finally be able to head along to their favourite drive-thru - except for one very eager Trade Me bidder.
If your internal monologue has been obsessing over fast-food lately, you aren't alone.
Some New Zealanders have missed their favourite takeaways so much during lockdown they've even brought the drive-thru to their own homes.
"People have been deprived of something and there's a built-up desire," says addiction expert and researcher Professor Doug Sellman.
"If you can't have something, human beings want it."
Fast-food vendors are preparing for an onslaught when contactless sale is allowed from midnight tomorrow with experts saying stress and loneliness often bring on a desire for comfort and fast-food can be just that.
"It's more like a drug that has been particularly engineered for palatability, with just the right amount of salt or sugar and particularly sugar," Prof Sellman says.
Prof Sellman says the majority of New Zealanders are not addicted to fast-food but one Trade Me listing offering to deliver McDonald's to the home of a lucky bidder on Tuesday might have you fooled. The leading bid is $400.
Although it isn't a cheap meal it might be better than facing a traffic jam like one outside a McDonald's in France that recently reopened.
So will New Zealanders head straight for our drive-thrus on Tuesday? Kiwis were divided.
"First thing, breakfast, coffee, can't wait. Definitely some KFC for tea probably too," one person told Newshub.
"It's just going to be mad next week so I'll stay without," another said.
Perhaps some of us have more self-control than we thought.
