Christopher Luxon has boarded his big blue campaign bus, yet to be officially named, as he travels east along the Bay of Plenty coast today.
The National Party leader’s bus tour to Whakatāne stopped off in Te Puke with supporters and he took an opportunity to prove he was there by holding today’s Te Puke Times paper.
The town made headlines last year when a video posted to Luxon’s Facebook page suggested he was in Te Puke when he was actually in Hawaii on holiday.
Landing in Tauranga this morning after last night’s leaders’ debate, Luxon chatted briefly with a few people in the airport and handed out tickets to media for his bus ride to Whakatāne.
One told him the assessment by some media commentators that Labour’s Chris Hipkins won last night’s televised leaders debate was rubbish, while another believed the public would see through the commentary and deem Luxon the winner.
The bus, almost full of local candidates and other party members, then made its brief stop in Te Puke.
A team of about 60 National supporters waving party signs welcomed the bus on arrival.
National’s Bay of Plenty candidate Tom Rutherford was enthusiastic with megaphone in hand, urging the crowd to chant “party vote National” as Luxon exited the bus.
Not seeing much success, Rutherford changed tack and began chanting part of National’s slogan “back on track”.
Barely anyone joined him. Tauranga candidate Sam Uffindell gave a half-hearted attempt initially but did not continue.
Perhaps reading the room, Rutherford began chanting “back on the bus”.
The National bus was forced to stop for about 10 minutes at some roadworks east of Te Puke, where only one lane of traffic was allowed.
Luxon took the opportunity to chat with those on board.
”This is why we need new roads, right?” Luxon said with a depressed tone.
“Imagine getting stuck in this every day.”
As he approached the back of the bus where media were sitting, he came across a Newstalk ZB reporter doing a live cross to the station’s morning Wellington show.
Not wasting an opportunity for more publicity, Luxon gladly accepted the invitation to pop the reporter’s earphones in and chat with host Nick Mills for a few minutes.
They spoke briefly about last night’s debate, with Luxon calling Hipkins “out of sorts” and “negative”.
He doubled down on a comment he made last night, confirming he would give Hipkins a hug if the Labour leader wanted one.
After leaving the call, Luxon said to one of his supporters about the roadworks: “Only another 10 minutes to wait.”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth, the light turned green and the bus rolled on.