Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater has decided to take a brief break from watching real-time traffic to his website, deciding that it was “probably that time of year” to go outside.

Slater, whose website remains the most-visited blog in New Zealand, normally tells the time of day by how many visitors are sifting through his tens of daily posts about Len Brown, David Cunliffe and slapstick comedy, but today expressed a desire to see the world as the common people see it.

Slater said he was very nearly dissuaded from venturing outside when he saw that one of his tweets had been retweeted by an actual human being, but was swiftly disappointed when he discovered that it was only Justice Minister Judith Collins, from whom he also received his last 30 text messages.

He described his subsequent experience in the daylight as being “strange” and “underwhelming,” making sure to note that traffic on his street was “substantially less” than traffic to his website.

Slater has called media four separate times since being spoken to this afternoon, seeking to confirm that his quip about traffic would be included in any eventual story.

When last heard from, Slater was “fairly sure” he would go inside again soon, but was first considering mowing his berms.