Chris Hipkins and Carmel Sepuloni serve up burgers at Waitara High School. Photo: Robin Martin / RNZ
Labour's heavy-hitters hit full campaign mode on Thursday when they visited Taranaki.
Both party leader Chris Hipkins and MP Carmel Sepuloni played on their family histories as they hit the streets of Waitara and visited the local high school.
Carmel Sepuloni is Waitara born-and-bred, but less well-known is that Hipkins' mother lived there too, and he spent many summer holidays at family bach nearby.
Rose Hipkins also attended Waitara High School, where senior students grilled the politicians on subjects ranging from cellphones in schools to teachers' pay, and why they got into politics in the first place.
Ohorere La'Ava. Photo: Robin Martin / RNZ
Year 13 student Ohorere La'Ava MC-ed the question-and-answer session. She found the visit inspirational.
"Him being in Waitara and how his mum came to our school, which is something that is really cool because I would never expect it to happen.
"It inspires me to keep pushing for my, like, dreams and it means even coming from a small town you can still achieve your dreams."
Her dreams were front of mind when she spoke to Hipkins and his second-in-command.
"Just to represent my culture, because I come from Tuvalu which is, like, a very small island and I really want to promote it and the things that are going on there because there is a lot of sea level rise happening and I just want to push it [that message] out."
Chris Hipkins and Carmel Sepuloni talk to students at Waitara High School. Photo: Robin Martin / RNZ
Then it was time for the Labour Party hierarchy to don hairnets to serve up hamburgers for the student's lunch - not that everyone was aware of who the strangers were.
Kaila Patuwairua was rapt with the burger. "It was cool as."
But did not know it was the prime minister behind the counter - "not really."
Kaila's mate Kahlia Rodger had clocked Hipkins somewhere. "It was pretty cool. I'd seen him on the news last night."
But less sure of his name. "I don't know ... Chris, Chris ... something?"
Hipkins said engaging with the youngsters was the highlight of the day.
"Being able to interact with kids is fantastic - they often ask uninhibited questions, so you really kind of get a flavour of what's on their minds. They don't hold back."
He reckoned his notoriety had not gone unnoticed by everyone at the lunch counter.
"Yeah, a lot of people were making jokes about a certain slip-up I made during the Covid-19 response period - that sort of came up a few times."
Chris Hipkins - big fan of sausage rolls. Photo: Robin Martin / RNZ
But a planned fish and chips run in the township was dropped from the itinerary, and gags about 'Chippy' being in a chippy shop had to be put on the backburner.
"No, unfortunately because it's raining and there's none with places where we can sit down and eat it."
Instead, the Hipkins' entourage had headed to Holmes Cafe.
Cafe owner William Theng. Photo: Robin Martin / RNZ
"I haven't even looked at the menu yet. I don't think they have fish and chips, but I'm sure I'll come up with something."
Cafe owner William Theng had a recommendation.
"What do I recommend for lunch? He could try our eggs benedict, it's pretty good, yeah ... We do chips, but we don't do fish and chips unfortunately. We do hot chips though."
Earlier in the day, the prime minister met with business leaders and toured Port Taranaki, where he stressed his government's commitment to a just transition to a carbon-neutral economy and his enthusiasm for offshore wind power generation.
