Whanganui full-time activist Phil Reweti sells his protest wagon

Phil "Bear" Reweti crisscrosses the country in this station wagon going to protests. Photo / Bevan Conley

Phil Reweti is selling the Mitsubishi RAV that has carted him up and down New Zealand to places where he can make his views known.

It's done 280,000km and taken him to Waitangi on Waitangi Day, to Auckland and Wellington for peace protests and Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement protests. Most Wednesdays it takes him to Parliament, where he positions himself so words on his placard are seen by people watching the Backbenchers TV programme.

Reweti has protested against weapons expos, trade agreements, aerial 1080 poison drops and seabed mining.

He was a freezing worker at Affco's Imlay meatworks from 1979 until he turned up to work in his sign-written vehicle one day in 2012 and was locked out.

He was a close friend of the late unionist Helen Kelly, and during the lockout he stood on picket lines at other Affco meatworks all over the country.

"All the Affco plants know me well," he said.

He's still locked out and still a member of the Meat Workers' Union. He says Affco doesn't want to sack him, because it would have to pay him out. He's 60 now and expecting to eventually get superannuation from the company.

He never gets "aggro" at a protest, and laughs when he says he's never been arrested at one either, only "talked to" many times. Police did come to his house once, at a time when he was ringing Prime Minister John Key and threatening him.

"They came out and in the end they had a cup of tea and just asked me to stop ringing up his office."

Reweti has now taken to threatening Simon Bridges.

"I'm thinking about being campaign manager for Jami-Lee Ross," he said.

That would put him on the same side as Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater, who has called him a "union thug" and a bully.

Not to do things by halves, Reweti also stood for Whanganui District Council at the last election.

He's selling his RAV because he found another cheap van that will be better to sleep in when he's away from Whanganui.

His next protest is in Palmerston North on October 31 and November 1, opposing the New Zealand Defence Industry Association Forum, where weapons will be shown and business deals done.

After that he'll be at Rātana Pā on November 8, with more messages.