In among the buskers, street collectors and bustling workers stood the lone "elephant", bearing the message "it's time to stop flying".
Mr Bennion chose his outfit to highlight the issue of climate change, which he said was "the elephant in the room" - a problem people knew was there but chose to avoid.
It was a very dangerous problem which needed to be talked about, and he felt taking to the streets dressed as an elephant would create awareness and discussion.
Stopping all but essential flying was the biggest change people could make to reduce their personal emissions, he said.
"Cutting out flying also sends a clear message to governments, that people are ready for urgent steps to be taken at the national and international level to stabilise the climate," he said.
Friend and co-campaigner Patrick Morgan was with Mr Bennion on the street, though not as an elephant.
He said the main point of the lunch time protest was to get people talking about climate change.
"It's lunch time, your Lambton Quay people are going about their normal lunch time stuff, [we want to] get people talking about climate change. We want it to create action."
They planned to appear at Wellington City Council meetings over the next few weeks with the same "in your face message", he said.
The idea came from the recent Australian elections, where similar "elephant in the room" protests were made, he said.
