Whangarei gives Pokemon Go fan a sweet send-off

TAKING THE CAKE: Pokemon Go gamer Tom Currie with a treat to help him on the way as his 2017 nationwide tour starts.

A man who travelled New Zealand promoting last year's international yet bizarrely local game craze Pokemon Go got off to a sweet start on his latest "Trainer Tom" tour.

Possibly the country's most dedicated Pokemon Go fan, Tom Currie quit his job as an Auckland barista last year to spend two months travelling the country in search of every creature available on the smartphone game.

He was back in Whangarei this week to start the 2017 InterCity bus-sponsored two-month tour, a reversal of last year's travel itinerary, which started in the South Island and ended in the Far North.

And this leg of his game-crazy tour will partly be funded by a good old-fashioned cake stall.

Getting on board the Pokemon Go bus was Kamo baking equipment business, Kiwicakes, with owner Sandra Boston making artful, Pokemon themed cupcakes for the 'Poke-stop' positioned outside her shop.

"We raised $150 for Pokemon Trainer Tom, selling Pokemon-themed cupcakes to members of the Pokemon Go Northland group, and we made a special cake just for Tom," Ms Boston said.

"Tom has a budget of $1000 for the next two months, so it was a big boost for him."

Other Whangarei players brought along dozens of cupcakes to hand out around Whangarei as they played the electronic hide-and-seek game with Mr Currie this week.

The gamers use mobile phone GPS and clocks to determine a player's location.

A Pokemon figure shows on a map of the area, with people then going out into the real world to find them.

During last year's on-the-bus tracking tour, Mr Currie "caught" 140 of the 141 Pokemon available in New Zealand.

The trail involved two flights, 22 buses, a 530km walk and 10,000 Poke-stop activations.

He ran out of money halfway through but his folk hero status saw the Pokemon Go community rally to offer rides, food, transport and accommodation.

He is called a "trainer" because of minor sponsorship offered by an international IT company when his dedication to the game hit world media last year.

The fad has quietened since the 1990s Pokemon figure was rebooted as a smartphone game last year, but hundreds of millions of people still play worldwide.