Winston Peters appears to be winding up Kiwis with a photo of him fishing in his own backyard.

In a photo the Deputy Prime Minister published to his Twitter and Facebook pages, Peters captions a picture of himself fishing while a nearby horse eats the grass.

It's captioned: "I'm fishing he's mowing the front lawn ..."

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was asked about the photo at today's daily press conference with Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield.

Ardern replied that she hadn't seen the photo but she hoped everyone was abiding by the lockdown rules.

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website

While he may have already got a phone call from the Prime Minister, Peters has had no trouble getting a bite out of Kiwis who are either outraged or humoured by his snap.

One Twitter user has taken the bait, responding to his tweet with, "This is worse than Health Minister David Clark's indiscretion 'cos he's flaunting it in our faces."

Another tweeted, "This is just a slap in the face of every fisherman out there."

However, others could see the funnier side.

"Good to see you're >2 metres apart. #PhysicalDistancing", one wrote, and another said "Oh dear Winston expect a phone call from Jacinda in a few minutes. Lockdown level 4 means you're not allowed to fish. Hopefully this is a old photo."

On Facebook, one of his followers said it was "bad taste" to post a photo of himself fishing in alert level 4 when it's not allowed.

Another has asked whether the photo means that because he has access to "hunting" in his backyard, that he can go too.

"So I have access to hunting from my own back yard does this mean I can go hunting?"