Alien Pod? Mysterious Barnacle Called 'Muriwai Monster' Washes Up In New Zealand Beach [VIDEO]

How often does anyone chance upon a mysterious looking "alien" pod on the beach? In New Zealand, residents are currently investigating an odd-looking object that washed up on the shore of Auckland.

The mysterious weird looking barnacle caused a lot of confusion, even on social media. Some say it's an alien capsule or a time travel pod while some speculated that it could be an odd-looking sea monster. A few days after it was discovered, it has earned its social media name the "Muriwai monster" after the beach it was found.

The object washed ashore in Muriwai beach in Auckland. It is heavily covered with seaweeds, making it more difficult to decipher its form. But whatever the object is, it is currently circulating on various social media sites that have gotten even the experts bewildered as to the origin of the mysterious "alien" pod.

Local resident Melissa Doubleday was the first to catch a glimpse of the weird pod on the beach, according to Daily Mail. The resident spotted the Muriwai monster on the beach while driving. "I actually thought it was a washed up whale as I approached it, so weird," Doubleday said in an interview.

Mysterious object washes up on NZ beach, baffling locals, dubbed the '#Muriwai monster' https://t.co/nnDUXEObwe

— RT (@RT_com) December 11, 2016

Today, crowds gather on Muriwai beach to marvel on the mysterious looking pod, which appears to have some sort of tentacles or sea-creature enveloping the object. Other residents who live near the beach say they haven't seen anything like this before.

"This is the biggest one I've seen. It's got a putrid smell when you're downwind and when you look closely it looks like wiggling worms," Muriwai resident Rani Timot said in an interview.

To satiate the curiosity behind the mysterious alien pod, some experts could offer a conclusion about what the object could be. Based on the observation of the New Zealand Marine Sciences Society, it could only be driftwood entirely covered in gooseneck barnacles. Gooseneck barnacles are a type of crustaceans that are known to cling to objects like rocks and wood.

If that's the case, that is one odd-looking driftwood that had managed to baffle residents and passersby in the said Auckland beach that even earned its own name, the "Muriwai monster". With that said, there are no 'alien' pods discovered just yet, to the disappointment of alien hunters and conspiracy theorists.