Allanah Barley with her VW Golf, which was covered in paint in a drive-by attack in central Wellington on Saturday night.

It felt like the gentle patter of rain, but it was actually a random drive-by attack by a serial paint pest.

A Wellington man walking home on Taranaki St became one of more than half a dozen victims of the attacker on Saturday night.

Oliver Bray was walking towards Mt Cook about 10pm when he noticed messy white spray splashed on the footpath near Courtenay Place.

CAMERON BURNELL/ FAIRFAX NZ Oliver Bray was doused in paint on Saturday night, probably by the same attacker.

A few minutes later, as he kept walking and sent a text message to a mate, Bray was tagged himself.

"All of a sudden I had white stuff all over me. I don't know where it came from. It was a shock."

Bray said as he looked up he heard a car speeding away, but didn't have time to get its registration number.

The attack left him fuming and covered in white paint, as were his cellphone, headphones, brand new sweatshirt, and his watch.

He was looking at his phone at the moment he hit, and didn't see the paint – he just felt it.

"It felt like rain just started, for a second, and stopped again."

At the same time, few blocks away, Allanah Barley was enjoying dinner with friends at a restaurant on Majoribanks St, before leaving about 10.30pm.

She walked to her black VW Golf, parked about five metres from the restaurant, and found it doused in what she thought, in the dark, was a milkshake.

The attack must have happened between 6.30pm and about 10.30pm, she said, and it looked like a drive-by, "because there were other cars in front of me and behind me that had it down the same side".

Her Golf was covered in a speckled white pattern across paintwork, windows and mirrors.

"I had to scrape some off the side mirror so I could actually use it."

She took the car through a car wash that night, but the paint didn't come off. She then sat in her garage till about 1am "trying to scrape off some of it".

The car was insured, she said, and on Sunday morning she reported the attack to police. But she could not figure out why anyone would do it.

"It kind of makes me wonder about some people. I don't know if he was drunk himself, or if he had an issue with the cars, or that particular road."

Police said they were investigating six reported paint attacks on vehicles overnight on Saturday in central Wellington.

They said they did not have any CCTV footage, but investigations were continuing. If caught, the culprit would face wilful damage charges for the attacks on the vehicles.

The attack on Bray could result in common assault charges.