A mysterious object that washed up on a New Zealand beach has caused widespread speculation about what it might be, spawning some particularly bizarre conspiracy theories about its origin.

After finding the giant barnacle-covered object beached on the shore over the weekend, the locals of Auckland's Muriwai Beach were left perplexed.

The local resident of this area Melissa Doubleday came across it on Saturday and was left puzzled by the foreign beach intruder which later became known as the "Muriwai Monster".

Melissa Doubleday has put it after she found the strange looking object on Saturday and told to Stuff.Co.NZ, "I actually thought it was a washed up whale as I approached it, so weird,"

In a bid to get some public ideas on the mysterious object of what it might be, she posted the picture to the local Waimauku Area Facebook group, asking: " just curious to know if anyone knows what this is?

This object has sparked a debate on social media and reported various views on that. Though, the commentators have speculated it could be anything from art to part of an old shipwreck.

According to News, the large object is believed to be a piece of driftwood covered in what are known as gooseneck barnacles. This is filter-feeding crustaceans that live attached to hard surfaces along the shoreline between the tide marks.

After the recent earthquake small amount of unusual things have been washing up on New Zealand beaches. The earthquake has resulted in the seabed around New Zealand to lift.

In last month November, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit New Zealand and has lifted the seabed by up to two meters in some places.

As a result of the earthquake, north of Kaikoura on the coast of New Zealand's south island has exposed the seaweed strewn rocks, and now exposed meters above the ground, as a result sea life won't survive in the open air.

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