Tauranga motorists spent Wednesday afternoon rushing to a select group of petrol stations, which had not yet raised fuel prices.
Staff at the Gull service station on Hewletts Road in Mount Maunganui say they were inundated with motorists fuelling up from about midday.
Gull Hewletts Road at 4pm on Wednesday.
A litre of 91 unleaded has increased to $1.83 a litre and to $1.16 for diesel, the largest increase in 18 months.
The Automobile Association has described the hike as an “uncomfortable price point”.
Gull on Hewletts Road is one of the petrol stations in the city that had not yet raised fuel prices.
The company is expected to follow the petrol hikes but Tauranga motorists were getting in before that happened.