No one quite reckoned on the campaign being affected by a man in a digger looking for kauri up north breaking a pipeline.
The moment that Labour leader Jacinda Ardern got wind of it, she was raising issues every other Kiwi was asking, about security of fuel supply - in this case aviation fuel - whether the law had been followed regarding reserves, and whether the Government had managed fuel security properly.
In an election in which National is selling itself as the best and proven managers of the country, this was a particularly unwelcome mistake.
As an MP with a nearby electorate, Judith Collins, who is also Energy Minister, was on hand with English in Botany.
They did not reveal anything about the fuel shortage until asked by reporters. Clearly they had planned for this to be a problem of the private sector, not Government.
And every response was about offering help.
As luck would have it for English, the "mistake" of the day on which he seized was that of Greens Party leader James Shaw who, in an interview on Q + A, in which he said the Greens would try to negotiate for a capital gains tax to be introduced in a first-term Labour-Greens Government.
It showed pressure between the opposition parties, he said, and while Labour was delaying the tax, they may still have negotiate with the Greens to be in Government and the Greens had more extreme views than Labour.
"The choice is pretty clear - if people vote for National there wont be any extension of current taxes. If they vote for Labour, they could end up with a discussion with the Greens for all the taxes Labour tried not to talk about..."
English began the day's campaigning in the Cigale market in Epsom with list MP Paul Goldsmith, who is campaigning only for the party vote.
He also offered himself up for four hundred of selfies with shoppers in the Botany town centre and St Luke's mall.
