A ground-breaking campaign to get the country's 460,000 smokers to give up the tobacco is being rolled out in Kaitaia next week.
Stoptober is the Ministry of Health's biggest ever stop smoking challenge and aims to help Kiwis who still smoke to give up the habit.
Kaitaia is where the campaign will start on Monday at the old Pak 'n Save building on Commerce St at 10am.
The big red Stoptober ball will start off in Kaitaia and roll through the country throughout September with smoking cessation providers signing up those who want to quit.
Figures from last year's census show that Northlanders are leading the national trend of stopping smoking, with 28.1 per cent of the population (or 29,400 people) identifying themselves as ex-smokers in last year's census. This compared with 22.9 per cent nationally.