People were greeted with a screen showing a road through palm trees and sand and asked if they wanted to continue in Spanish or English. Photo: Supplied / Hamilton City Council
It is a new month and Hamilton was a new city - if you believed the parking kiosks, that is.
An unforeseen glitch on Tuesday morning linked Hamilton's parking kiosks' system to a network managed by the county of Los Angeles.
When drivers went to register their car, they were greeted with a screen showing a road through palm trees and sand and asked if they wanted to continue in Spanish or English.
According to the 2018 New Zealand Census, 0.9 percent of Hamilton city residents spoke Spanish.
Hamilton City Council's operate and maintain unit director Tania Hermann said: "We introduced a new parking model in the city this morning, and while we planned for many scenarios, its fair to say we didn't see this one coming."
A Hamilton parking kiosk. Photo: RNZ / Libby Kirkby-McLeod
New parking kiosks were installed and programmed with the parking charge changes, but a technical issue during set-up meant the front screen settings defaulted back to the original programming.
"Los Angeles was the first city to use these types of kiosks, so their imagery has become the default setting. As soon as people select an option, the system links into Hamilton's information, which is now resolved," Hermann said.
"It's not helpful to explaining the new changes, but sometimes you just have to accept the unexpected happens and laugh about it."
RNZ went to a parking kiosk and can confirm that things are back to normal.