Wainuiomata

And I worked my way through the ranks until I was a secondary school principal.

So I did that job for eight years in Wainuiomata and I loved it.

It was great.

But after eight years, it wasn't easy to come up with new ideas.

And in education, as well as a lot of careers, you've got to be continually innovating, doing things in a different way.

And sometimes you go a full circle, but that doesn't matter.

So anyway, so there I was in Wainuiomata, and there was a Labour government at the time, and our local MP was Trevor Mallard.

And because he was the Minister of Education, he decided to restructure education in his own electorate first.

Polls suggest it's too close to call, and both Chris Hipkins' and Chris Luxon's leadership popularity isn't setting the world on fire.

So why does Chris Hipkins think he and his party can win? I caught up with the Labour Party leader in Te Whanganui-a-Tara at Wainuiomata at his Māori policy launch in the weekend.

The Right Honorable Chris Hipkins, tēnā koe.

Tēnā koe.

This week, we've also seen a range of developments across Māori politics.

The week kicked off with Labour's Māori campaign launch in Wainuiomata on Saturday, which I attended.

That was the party's chance to debut its new candidates.

They each had a chance to speak before a very favourable crowd of Labour supporters and activists.

Hi, Marcus.

Brought a pie from Wainuiomata.

Drove to Petone for sure to eat it.

Pulled up next to a brick wall facing the beach with a seagull looking at me and standing on one leg.

I've got a question as well as apples and mouth tape.

Someone says, Marcus, there's an old whitebait net for sale in Wainuiomata, but the netting needs replacing.

Can anyone who knows whitebaiting tell me how hard it would be to do this? And is it worth it? Is it south and south? What sort of net is it? Apparently for Lotus car owners, lots of trouble, usually serious.

Okay.

extraordinary.

Just to bring down the tone, Trevor, you're saying that the chap in the Botanical Gardens who punched James Shaw was from Wainuiomata.

Perhaps he was inspired by a former pugilist from Wainuiomata.

LAUGHTER Yeah, I was.

I went toe-to-toe with toe, all right? LAUGHTER

And I said, of course.

Of course I'd do that.

And then they had the woman there who was really the only one who I could identify as being the strong National Party woman in Wainuiomata.

And yes, obviously, Melia Kerr, no one would argue with her being named the winner of the Wellington Sports Person of the Year.

But it is just so many of the cool stories and things that you don't hear about every day or every week that are happening in the sporting community of Wellington, the uplifting stories you know, stories, the volunteers that are out in communities like Wainuiomata or Cannons Creek, you know, actually giving people sport who generally wouldn't be able to afford it.

It's those kind of stories and the results from those that I think are always the most inspiring parts of those nights.

Pino, you've got 10 seconds, 20 seconds to say what you think.