"It's been a wicked journey. When I first heard I had won [my heat] I was stoked, over the moon," Rolston said.
"Performing felt like I was home really because being a busker, you're performing for a whole town. I've been busking for nearly a decade. I started when I was at intermediate.
"There are a lot of people that think buskers are just out there looking for money. With me, when I go out busking, I make sure I dress nice, I make sure I look the part, act the part.
"Being a smoker, I will put my guitar down and walk away from my gears. I try to be [as] professional as I can be.
"I say, 'Thank you', and, 'Have a nice day', to anyone who gives a koha (gift)," he said.
"Hundreds of people come by me and say, 'Bro, you're mean and everything but I just don't have any change', and I'll just say, 'Just enjoy the music, bro', and keep playing. I've grown to love it. Wish I could do it as a job."
Rolston said he would sing A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong or the Westlife version of You Raise Me Up.
"I grew up with Louis Armstrong and Josh Groban and things like that, all the old-school era of music instead of the now time. That's where my musical background comes from."
He said 20 whanau members would travel to Auckland to support in the audience.
-Homai Te Pakipaki will screen on Maori TV at 8pm.
