Minus two-degree temperatures left one truck driver chilly on his night shift when suddenly, driving along the Tauranga Takitimu Drive Toll road at 1.20 in the morning; he saw a glowing colour in the distance.

Underneath the toll road scanner cameras, graffiti artists had gone to work, creating an amusing sight for a bored truck driver.

Dollar signs, flowers and ‘HA HA’ covered the road, glowing as the toll scanner blue lights shone down.

The truck driver was amazed and pulled over to take a better look.

“It just blew me away, there were all these colours glowing.”

The dollar signs and mockery of the toll road felt very relatable to the truck driver. “I was giggling,” he says.

Graffiti on the State Highway 29 under the toll gantry at Tauriko. Photo: truck driver.

The truck driver says the combination of toll road charges and gas prices these days can be painful, and the message behind the graffiti was “one hundred per cent relatable”.

“I’ve driven all around New Zealand and we’ve got two toll roads just in Tauranga, and there’s only three in New Zealand.”

Due to Cambridge Rd having roadworks, the truck driver is forced to use the toll roads daily to take his kids to school and pick them up. “It’s not cheap.”

Since the truck driver saw the graffiti, Waka Kotahi NZTA has removed it.

“There was some graffiti discovered on the State Highway 29 under the toll gantry at Tauriko on Friday morning and it was covered up the same day,” says a Waka Kotahi NZTA spokesperson.

“It is an offence to damage or deface infrastructure and enforcement sits with the NZ Police.”

The truck driver says he noticed the graffiti had been covered with concrete two days later.

“But they’ve actually left three of the dollar signs, which I was amused by. I thought that’s quite interesting because we all pay dollars to go through so it’s quite quirky.”