It was all in the hopes of being the last person with their hand on a $20,000 car that they could be driving home in.
That person ended up being David - but he was not planning to keep the car for himself.
More than 1000 University of Canterbury students entered a competition to win a blue hybrid Suzuki Swift worth $20,000.
Ten students were drawn at random - and spent the afternoon competing for the car.
Starting at 2pm, the students had to physically have a hand on the car at all times to remain in the race to win it.
Student association spokesperson Luc Mackay told Checkpoint at 4.30pm that four students remained.
The others had been eliminated during a series of challenges.
"It's very intense," Mackay said.
"We are eliminating them round-by-round. It's getting very, very tense down here but it's very exciting."
One of the "meaner" challenges was having the competitors eat an entire raw onion - while keeping one hand firmly on the car.
"We were very generous, we took the skin off and we took the horrible ends off but yes, they had to munch through an entire raw onion."
Surprisingly, Mackay said, all the students soldiered through - with one managing to eat it in just three bites.
"It was absolutely insane, everyone went crazy."
Another challenge involved the students putting on their contestant shirts with the use of just one hand.
"Someone unfortunately took their hand off in that first round and they were eliminated."
And what about if someone needed a wee?
"Most people have just been opting for just holding it in, holding out for that $20,000 car."
By 6pm, David - studying a masters of data science - had won the car and told Checkpoint he would be giving it to another student who needed it more than he did.
"What I'm looking to do is give it to someone else who is less fortunate than I am. It's another student, a single mum, and I'd like to end up making sure she has it so she can end up selling it or do whatever she needs to help pay for her education."
David said his strategy was simply to hold off needing the bathroom.
"It was just to make sure I didn't pee while I was going through this contest. That was my major problem."
But what about eating a raw onion? Too easy, David said.
"I usually eat garlic like apples.
"It's good for you."
Mackay said the competition was a lot of fun - but was also a way of drawing students back to campus.
"Campus, especially the University of Canterbury, is the place to be.
"I mean, it's such a beautiful campus, it's green, we've got a thriving social scene.
"We really just want people to come back, especially after Covid, thrive in that social setting to allow people to also focus on the academic study, so this is a big part for a lot of students, especially the last day of term. We just want people still engaged, still focused, and just achieving both socially but academically most importantly as well."
