A huge spike in petrol prices is expected tonight after petrol company Waitomo warned motorists to fill up before 6pm on Friday night.
Fuel prices have been steadily increasing because of uncertainty over the war in Ukraine and the ban on Russian fuel by the UK and US.
There was a last-minute dash to fill the tank this afternoon before prices soar even higher, with cars crawling into a Wellington fuel station.
"Saw something on Twitter it was likely to jump up tonight - looks like everyone saw the same thing," one resident said.
It was a message from Waitomo - warning prices would go up after 6pm.
"We got a notification this morning from our supplier that prices were increasing at an unprecedented rate that I haven't seen in my time in the industry," Waitomo Group Managing Director Jimmy Ormsby said.
So the prices are going up by about 20 cents a litre for petrol and 30 cents for diesel.
"We can't absorb the price increases of this magnitude," Ormsby says.
Their warning was too effective for a fuel station in Christchurch that had run out of 91 by 3pm this afternoon.
"I'll have to get 95 then, damn," one Christchurch resident said.
"I've just realised there is no gas left, it's pretty crazy ridiculous eh," another told Newshub.
"I'm going to find somewhere else, that really sucks," said a third.
And so does the cost of fuel.
"Bit ridiculous... To see $3 a litre in some places is just too much," one person said.
In the first week of this year, 91 was sitting at an average of $2.61 a litre. Now some stations in Auckland are charging as much as $3.41 a litre - that's an 80 cent jump in just 10 weeks.
"It cost me $300 to fill the tank," one person said.
The pump price increases are driven by the continued uncertainty over the Ukraine crisis.
Crude oil prices have soared by more than 35 percent for barrels in the past week - reaching record levels not seen since 2008.
"We're seeing extreme volatility, we're seeing rises of 10 percent on one day and drops of 13 percent the day after - it's very difficult to predict what is going on," AA spokesperson Terry Collins says.
Although there's one thing Collins is confident about.
"The days of cheap motoring are coming to an end for internal combustion cars."
Bad news for Kiwi wallets.
