Holy guacamole - Kiwis bandit together for charity

Bar manager Leo Archer and the staff of Mexico restaurants hope to raise $10,000 for charity. Photo / Richard Robinson

The month of the mos - Movember - is halfway through and New Zealanders look to be among the hairiest in the world, raising huge amounts of money for men's health.

New Zealand is eighth of 21 countries on the international Movember leaderboard.

A total of 12,668 Kiwis signed up for the event and have so far raised almost $510,000.

Movember, which began in 2003, challenges men around the world to grow a moustache for the 30-days of November to raise funds and awareness for prostate and testicular cancer and men's mental health.

One of the top teams to take part in the fundraising efforts is made up of staff members from the Mexico restaurants around Auckland.

They raise funds by donating a set amount of money given by customers every day. They have a target of $10,000 and, as of yesterday, have raised just over $8000.

Bar manager at Mexico Britomart, Leo Archer, said staff members and customers alike were excited to be involved and that a bit of competition had developed.

"This is the first time we've done it and it's just got us all together and doing something really good for Kiwi men. There's a few wispy and quite weak mos around."

Mr Archer said he and the other members of Mexico for Mo's team had their own reasons for wanting to be a part of Movember.

"For me, it's about remembering my grandfather, who died of prostate cancer. A lot of Kiwi men tend to shy away from talking about stuff like that and this just makes it easy to talk about it all and do something that supports the community."