Another day on the campaign trial, another encounter with a giant weta

A giant weta called George. A tree planting. Cute kids with names like Memphis and Lovely. Some Red Band gumboots.

It's just the first of Prime Minister Bill English's scheduled campaign stops on Saturday.

At least it wouldn't have been, but for the torrential rain that forced the cancellation of a kids soccer tournament.

To fill in time it's a quick coffee at the Redwood Coffee Club, where a supporter's bright-as-a-rosette daughter shows up in National-branded sneakers.

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Then it's off to Reporoa Primary where a working bee is in full swing on an 'outside classroom', being built with a grant of $10,000.

Which is where Lovely and her friends escort English on site, with a good-sport detour to splash through a puddle, and on to the one-on-one with George.

It probably wasn't in the script, but prime-ministerial blood is drawn, by George. English offers to hand him on to the kids, who seem not in the least fazed by George-the-Merciless or the presence of the PM as they trail him around the school grounds.

English's press secretary tries out "Pied Piper" which seems a bit try-hard, until one of the hardened media pack quite independently suggest he is a bit like ... okay, Pied Piper it is, although that tale came to a controversial end..

It runs out G-the-M  was a close neighbour of Bill and Mary English at their home in Karori, where Project Crimson champion and Bug Man Ruud Kleinpaste found him and brought him North.

The whole scene is one of positive energy, and the campaign event from heaven. Parents, staff and kids are digging and planting natives and then tucking into a lunch - snarlers, savouries and lashings of cake, though it's a doggy bag for the PM to take away.

To mark his visit English plants a tree, though someone omitted to dig the hole for it.

He does the spade-work himself, recalling how many post holes he has dug in his time. Cue; jokes about finally finding that fiscal hole National has laboured over in a failed attempt to show the Opposition is economically untrustworthy.

The tree, since you ask, was a Hoheria Sextylosa 'Purple Lace" - a hardy, upright evergreen with weeping branches. Draw your own symbolism. English fills in the hole and stamps the soil down with his gumboots

The big news of the day comes later, back in central Rotorua at the huge Motion Entertainment centre full of families, video games and trampolines - again an inside alternative venue because of the rain.

Like many stops around the campaign English comes armed with pork fresh from the barrel; a plan to spend $75 million-$100 million four-lane-ing the road from the city to Rotorua airport.

Local MP Todd McClay has been pushing for it for nine years, so the last week of the campaign is presumably not too late - and the assembled crowd give it a genuine and rousing welcome.

The other English whistle-stops are at a retirement village - where minister and former garden show host Maggie Barry is a big hit as she outlines the party's seniors' policy - and a big rally at the Te Puke RSA.

It is deep in kiwifruit country and the room is a sea of blue. English's trademark off-the-cuff speech is lapped up, as he talks sound economic management, tax cuts and free trade, while mocking Labour's hope of renegotiating the FTA with South Korea.

There, and among the oldies earlier, English mentions Memphis and Lovely and the crowd melts.

After a clear run down a near-deserted toll road to Tauranga airport - legacy of earlier campaigns - English's plane to Auckland is delayed.

He has to cool his heels in the departure lounge before heading off for the final Sunday on the hustings,.

His old boss John Key would have cornered the travelling media pack, spinning and sharing the latest internal poll results.

English prefers to work the room, chatting to small groups dotted around the tables.

Like Jacinda Ardern on any given day, he has spent his time chatting and smiling with the kids, charming the parents, splashing some cash.

The polls are all over the shop, but the latest out late on Friday had Labour and National virtually neck and neck. 

Yet the Greens were higher than in most recent surveys, putting a Labour-led government at much shorter odds.

English is under the pump.

Stuff