Spiders emerging from flooded farmland have festooned about 75 metres of both sides of Jordan Valley Rd at Hikurangi with their webs.
Untold millions of the arachnids are swarming over the webs and road, with others on bits of web floating away in the wind.
It is a year since down came the rain and washed Incy Wincy out - causing millions of tiny spiders to flee Hikurangi Swamp floodwaters and create a giant web on the only dry land nearby.
The story and photos showing a 75m long web shrouding fences and bushes alongJordan Valley Rd last June went viral and became the most read online story in Northern Advocate history.
Millions of spiders on the move across the Hikurangi Swamp last year.
It was an instant hit on the paper's own Facebook page, other networks and in the national media, but it really gained traction after being picked up by a popular science blog called I F***ing Love Science, which has 16 million Facebook fans. In just five hours the post was shared more than 17,787 times, had 41,756 likes and 5264 comments.
But this June, out came the sunshine and dried up all the rain. With no floodwaters to flee from, there was hardly a spider's web to be seen yesterday.
Hikurangi Swamp farmer Ben Smith said the fleeing spider phenomenon often happened during late autumn floods.
"With 5600ha under water, there's nowhere else for the spiders to go," he said.
The cobwebbed landscape usually lasted two or three weeks, with the spiders dispersing as floodwaters receded.
Northern Regional Council biosecurity officer Ross Johnson said harmless, baby money spiders were behind the large amount of a silk-like substance floating in the air and settling on the land.
In late autumn and early winter spiderlings - baby spiders - threw out a long single thread of silk in an attempt to be picked up by thermals and light winds, allowing them to be transported long distances in a process called ballooning, Mr Johnson said. Anything in the spiders' path ends up draped with the fine silk.
