“My partner was like, ‘Maddie, Pumba’s got an audience today’,” she said.
Bateman said the pig’s owner regularly took him for walks around Sumner, including trips to the beach.
On the weekend, though, he apparently had other plans.
“It was funny … the owners were like, ‘come here, come here’, and he just was like, ‘no, I’m going home’.”
She said the pig had been a local character for years, often attracting attention during his outings.
“Lots of people in Christchurch know about Pumba, but I just so happened to catch him going across the pedestrian crossing.”
Bateman shared the footage on the couple’s home-renovation and lifestyle Instagram account Get Hammered, where she said it was going viral.
A Christchurch City Council spokesperson said it did not receive any reports about a pig on Sunday.
“We understand the pig is a local who has, on occasion, been known to make its way to the beach for a spot of sunbathing,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“It seems even pigs enjoy making the most of a good Christchurch day.”