Claire Trevett: Is Winston nicking other parties' votes?

NZ First leader Winston Peters' campaign is based on the technique of nicking other parties' votes. He is quite shameless about this.

First he aimed for National's votes, unveiling a blue campaign bus. Then he aimed for Labour's.

Yesterday it was the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party's turn. It came during a street meeting in Kaikohe, on the main drag. He had the Little River Band booming "Help is on it's way" he had the microphones, he had the patter.

The only thing missing was the people. Eventually the racket attracted about 10 people who kept a safe distance 100 metres away. One asked about legalising cannabis.

Peters promised a referendum on the matter but almost qualified for the Olympics with his backflip on it soon after. He had never smoked weed himself, but the damage was done. He had a new nickname: Winstoner.

Labour meanwhile has all but left its handbag of voters on the park bench for him to rifle through. Labour has almost stopped campaigning completely. All that is left is some hoardings on roadsides and Peters suggested they should even knock them down for his sake.

But he also went into Labour's heartland vote - the Kaikohe schools to poach the teachers. He began by telling the teachers he had once been a teacher himself, back in Medieval times. "But the pay was so lousy I went and got a law degree." Nonetheless, some of his best friends - his own family in fact, were teachers.

He began the day with a tour of Imerys Ceramics, the clayworks at Matapouri Bay which produces a niche mineral used in fine dining ware. Clad in high-vis and gumboots, he liked it so much he even asked for the t-shirt at the end. Asked if it was because he too considered himself a niche product, he replied "yes."

He ended the day with a bit of shopping at the Kaikohe New World - shopping for celebrity endorsements.

The shop is owned by Eric Rush who urged him to "stir 'em up mate. Stir 'em up." Peters even managed to get a rugby analogy in, noting of his National rivals that the campaign was "like rugby - when they start sticking the dirt, you know something's gone wrong."

He quickly added: "not us - we're as pure as driven snow." Alas, it transpired Mr Rush was on the Maori roll so could not vote for him.