By Chris Whitworth
The art of procrastination has taken on new meaning with students at an Otago flat spending 30 hours tinfoiling a friend’s entire room, just days out from exams.
Hamish Chang, a third year accounting student, was the unlucky victim of the time-consuming prank, which used 600m of tinfoil and took several days.
Hamish made the foolish mistake of leaving his room door unlocked while he flew home for the week before exams.
Flatmate Vinnie Schumacher says the prank was devilish in the detail.
“We did absolutely everything, except for clothes,” he says.
“He had a tackle box in his room and we wrapped every individual hook. The smallest thing would be the little sinkers - they were absolutely tiny.”
Hamish returned home at lunchtime yesterday, his flatmates ensuring not to spoil the surprise before he stepped foot back into his room.
“Oh my god this is awesome,” he said after seeing his transformed room.
“Holy shit, how long did it take you?”
The 20-year-old said he had to strip tinfoil from his bed so he could sleep last night, but aside from that – a large cleanup still beckons.
“I’m studying at the moment and it’s a bit of spaceship. A lot more light in here, so it’s probably a good thing.”
The tinfoil is so bright it can be seen from the footpath outside, and passersby have been drawn to the house.
“We’ve had a few visits, because you can see it from the street,” he says.
Word, and video, of the prank quickly spread around Otago University. A time lapse of the prank was filmed on a laptop camera and uploaded to YouTube.
“At the library today everyone was talking about it,” says Vinnie.
“He [Hamish] loves it eh, I think he’s enjoying all the fame.”
3 News
Click "view video" for a time lapse of the prank