A man who chose one of New Zealand's most beloved mountains as the spot to place an American flag is going viral for all the wrong reasons.
The unnamed person was photographed by a Redditor with the username BigBadBossNZ, who wrote "this guy placed the American flag at the top of the Mount today…"
The post quickly went viral, with hundreds of commenters calling the move "disgusting", "f*cking shameful" and asking "how dare he?"
The original poster said he knew the man was American because they heard his accent when he asked how much further it was to the top.
The Reddit user also shut down some comments that suggested the act was just a joke - "I was there, you were not… this guy wasn't joking" - and called planting the flag "littering in a culturally significant site".
Many commenters were keen to know if the flag had been quickly removed, with one person writing:
"I would absolutely blow my shoulder to pieces trying to yeet that as far as I could," and another adding "we don't allow rubbish on our maunga".
The OP said they regretted not taking the flag down, but "there were a lot of people" and they didn't want to "start something".
Local Māori consider Mauao (Mount Maunganui) sacred. Its name means "caught in the light of the day" and plays an important role in the mythology of the area.
"Shoving it into the top of the mount is desecration," one comment read. "The side is OK, but the very top is tapu."
"American here, sorry about that," one US Reddit user wrote. "We try our best to keep the idiots in but, much like the horny teenagers they act like, they get out of the house sometimes."
The photos also made it to the r/mildyinfuriating subReddit, where it garnered even more attention, although some comments called it a "normal thing" to leave your country's flag at the top of a mountain you've summited.
"Is it bad to be American?" one commenter asked. "It's just a mountain climber leaving his mark. Wanna remove the flag from the moon?"
Meanwhile, one person simply offered: "Put the Laser Kiwi flag on Mount Rushmore, please and thank you."
