"The electorate is enormous so you've got to have a great campaign team," she said.
"The testament to us is really just that we were able to get our hoardings up so quickly and right throughout the electorate, which isn't an easy thing to do.
"My message is get out to vote, and just presenting our policies and hopefully what [Labour's] done in the last four years since I've been in, whether that's enough for them to send me back in."
Ms Whaitiri said her campaign was simple: "Retain the seat, change the government, and increase our margins."
She will be facing one of her 2014 opponents again, with Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox gearing up to do the "hard yards".
"I've got 32,000 doors to knock, up and down over 760km," she said.
Ms Fox will be encouraging voters to look beyond "party colours" - which she said would be one of her biggest issues of the campaign.
"We've got to help people understand you don't have to vote red or blue, or green or NZ First black. People think we're only about Maori but we're not, it's about correcting disparities for minority groups so that we all rise together in this nation.
"What I try to tell people, especially those people who are burdened under oppression that red and blue have had equal times ruling this government for the last 150 years, and we are still in this space. The disparaging statistics haven't happened overnight."
Her campaign team includes "grassroots people helping out on the ground", as well as more high profile figures, such as Mavis Mullins, and Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Inc chief executive Ngahiwi Tomoana.
Green Party candidate Dr Elizabeth Kerekere said her main challenge for the seat was "being up against two seasoned MPs in my first campaign".
"The other is the cost of zigzagging up and down the Ikaroa-Rawhiti electorate so donations to my page on greens.org.nz are very welcome!"
Dr Kerekere said her campaign had changed slightly with the recent changes to the Greens list, which meant she was now at number 19.
"My strategy is to talk to lots of people all over the electorate and build up my social media.
"My key message is that a Green Party vote would see more Maori MPs in Parliament (including me) working to end poverty, clean up our rivers and lead real action on climate change.
"We will keep spreading the kaupapa Maori Green message up till the last minute."
According to the candidates, the range of issues facing Ikaroa-Rawhiti were nearly as vast as the electorate itself.
During her campaign the incumbent MP said she would be talking about the issues - which always varied throughout the electorate - and sharing Labour's policies which could address these.
The key social issues for Ms Fox were mental health, suicide prevention, and drug and alcohol addiction. Environmentally, land and water issues needed to be resolved "to regional [economic] development up and cracking for the East Coast".
Dr Kerekere said people along the East Coast were facing social challenges around housing, health and job security.
"Too many of our children are growing up in poverty and too many of our elders are struggling to live in dignity," she said, adding there were threats from oil exploration companies, river pollution, and climate change.
"We have creative solutions though, and the Greens are committed to working with iwi and Maori organisations to face those challenges."
Both current MPs were not taking their positions for granted.
"[Marama Fox] and I are both in Parliament and I know our respective voters want us back in Parliament," Ms Whaitiri said.
"I think what Marama delivers with her party, and what we're offering and what we've been able to do, at the end of the day the choice is with the voters and I think that's where it should always be."
Because she might not get into Parliament off the Maori party list, Ms Fox was "asking people to vote for me because without their vote I will not be there".