Thousands of toy bears in windows and driveways greeted anyone walking the streets of New Zealand during lockdown.
The bears were part of a movement kicked off by Christchurch woman Deb Hoffman, who launched the We're Not Scared - NZ Bear Hunt Facebook page out of concern about public mental health and wellbeing.
The Bear Hunt recently won the Best Event award from Living Streets Aotearoa.
NZ Bear Hunt
Deb's idea was that the bears would encourage families to walk around their neighbourhoods and see as many of the toys as they could.
"I knew that parents would need a distraction, to be able to get out of the house and just reset. But then it went multigenerational and it became all of New Zealand needing to get out, get walking, get fresh air."
Inspired by Michael Rosen's popular 1989 children's book We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Deb had the idea to create a bear hunt with an interactive map and a community around it.
She began sharing the idea on local community Facebook pages, but then it took off nationwide.
Just under 30,000 people registered bears on the NZ Bear Hunt map - about 1 in 3 households in the country, Deb says.
The bears also became a symbol of solidarity, and the Kiwi spirit is a big part of why the movement took off, Deb says.
"We like to contribute, as a society, and we know how to reach out to other people. I think that just came alive during lockdown.
"I think when we look back on lockdown it's definitely going to be a symbol of what took place at that time. Teddy bears will be part of that story, I think, for a lot of people."
Watch Deb Hoffman on Checkpoint:
