Motorists stopping to admire flowers on a popular tourist route in the South Island's Mackenzie Country are igniting fears someone could be hurt or killed on the road.
The colourful lupin flowers bloom in the district along lake shores, streams and highways from November and through summer each year.
Local man Darrell McGrath said he saw 40 minutes of chaos while driving along State Highway 8 near Tekapo as motorists stopped to admire the flowers, with one person even stopping in the middle of the road.
"All these people standing there getting their selfies and photographs - highly bloody dangerous," he said.
He's worried that people stopping for the perfect shot of the sea of pink and purple lupins will cost someone's life.
"It's just pure luck no one's been squashed, killed or injured here."
Other motorists on the route agreed with McGrath and said they've been shocked by some of the poor driving and the number of people casually strolling across a State Highway.
"There's been occasions when you come around quite looping bends - so 85km/h - and literally after the apex of a corner you've got people stopped in the middle of the road opening up their doors, and we're having to move out of the way to make sure we don't hit them," said motorist Daniel Richardson.
"I think some people don't even stop to take photos, they just stop in the middle of the road to look at the nice scenes and don't realise there's a lot of people behind them or they're holding up a lot of traffic. They're just cruising along," another driver Danya Price said.
The lupins are set to continue flowering in the Mackenzie District over the coming weeks.
