Previous Northland shows have been in Whangarei. "There were good crowds there. Unfortunately when you are touring you don't really get to look around."
To get into character Franklin dons aviator sunglasses and a thick brown handlebar moustache, and uses permanent marker to draw tattoos on his arms similar to those of the real Chopper.
Franklin said he didn't often get accused of flogging a dead horse, although the real Chopper, who died just over a year ago from liver cancer, did. "The last thing Chopper said about me was, 'He's clearly got ears'."
(In the late 1970s Read got a fellow inmate to cut both his ears off so he could leave that particular prison cellblock.)
Franklin first shot to fame with the Chopper persona on Australian television show The Ronnie Johns Half Hour. When asked to describe the persona in three words he said: "World's greatest moustache."
While he views New Zealand as a second home of sorts, Franklin lives in Sydney with his wife and two kids under three.
"I maintain you should never be outnumbered by your children."
Despite that, at 7pm on any given weeknight, people are likely to catch him watching Disney show Doc McStuffins and Jake and the Neverland Pirates on television. "Nothing I would want to watch, that's for sure. Doc McStuffins is really irritating."
So when he gets the chance he enjoys a spot of Aussie rules.
"I unwind by hanging out at home in my underpants watching Aussie rules, which makes for a long, slow summer."
And if he wasn't a comedian, he thinks he'd be trimming hedges.
"I could trim a bush into the shape of a duck for a living."
Franklin will perform his Repeat Offender show at 7.30pm on Wednesday at the Turner Centre in Kerikeri.
For tickets phone 09 407 0260.