Graeme Campbell reaches Whanganui on length of NZ tractor trip

Graeme Campbell was joined by his grandchildren and their friends when he fetched up in Whanganui on March 15. Photo / Lewis Gardner

A few cold and wet occasions were the only fault Whanganui's Graeme Campbell could find with his tractor trek the length of New Zealand.

He and friend Warrick Huthnance left Whanganui for Bluff on February 22, to be part of mental health advocate Mike King's Gumboot Friday Tractor Trek. Campbell is on a 1964 Fordson Super Major, while Huthnance drives "a little old Fergie".

Some of the group stopped in Whanganui's Cornmarket Reserve for a few hours on March 15, so people could meet them and admire their tractors.

The group is raising money to provide counselling sessions, and aims to be in Auckland for Gumboot Friday on April 3.

Sponsor Kiwibank had staff out on the reserve, helping and selling sausages in bread.

Phil Aish organised the first two tractor treks, which were for hospice. He's doing it all again in his Humvee - this time for a different cause, after his daughter got talking to Mike King on a plane trip.

Tractors at Whanganui's Cornmarket Reserve draw the crowds. Photo / Lewis Gardner

Far too many New Zealand farmers commit suicide, Aish said.

"If one person reconsiders as a result of this, then we will be well rewarded."