Tauranga dairy owners say good intentions have so far not translated into their smoking customers kicking the nicotine habit.
The tax increase that hiked the price of tobacco products by 10 per cent on January 1 has not translated into a slow down in sales, despite Quitline experiencing a sharp increase in the number of smokers seeking help to quit.
Quitline, a charitable trust that helps people stop smoking, said it had signed up 2171 people from throughout New Zealand in the first week of 2013, of whom 75 were from the Bay of Plenty.
Spokesman Bruce Bassett said the most exciting statistic for the first week of January was the increase in blogs and emails. Quitline's Quit Blogs almost trebled, with 2476 people blogging for the week, compared with 963 for the same period last year.
Mr Bassett said Quit Blogs connected people with others who had gone through, or were going through, the same experiences.