Dene Mackenzie profiles the Te Tai Tonga electorate.
Te Tai Tonga is a huge electorate by any standards, stretching from just north of Wellington down to Bluff, across Foveaux Strait to Stewart Island and over to the Chatham Islands.
Three candidates are trying to unseat the incumbent, Labour MP Rino Tirikatene, the third generation of his family to represent the electorate, which was once called Southern Maori.
The largest voting blocs for the electorate are in Christchurch, Wellington and Invercargill. Dunedin is followed by Nelson and Marlborough.
Mr Tirikatene won 43% of the vote in 2014, ahead of Maori Party candidate Ngaire Button with 25%, Green Party candidate Dora Langsbury on 16% and Mana candidate Georgina Beyer on 10.4%.
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party candidate Emma-Jane Mihaere Kingi is standing again this year after winning 5.1% of the vote in 2014.
Mr Tirikatene is going to be difficult to unseat as a Maori Television poll had him on 57% recently.
The campaign has become more interesting this year because the Green candidate is former co-leader Metiria Turei who is not on the Green Party list.
Her fate relies on winning as an electorate MP and she said she was working hard to secure the seat.
"I am campaigning for the party vote first but if people want me to represent them, they can vote for me as well.''
Mrs Turei resigned as co-leader and stood down from the list because of revelations she had been receiving more benefit entitlements than she was entitled to when she was a young mother.
Her supporters were angry about what happened to her once she told her story and was attacked for it, Mrs Turei said.
"The life I lived is the life they live every day. They want me to get back to do the work and be their representative.''
Mrs Turei identified poverty as a major issue in Te Tai Tonga, particularly in Southland which had one of the country's largest income gaps.
Maori in Christchurch had suffered after the earthquakes because many lived in rental accommodation or had no insurance.
However, there was a huge opportunity in the South Island because iwi organisations were strong and were providing opportunities for Maori, she said.
"Iwi and hapu are helping develop whanau but the Government is not playing its part.''
Mr Tirikatene said his campaign was going well and the election of Jacinda Ardern as party leader had lifted up everybody.
When contacted, he was in Christchurch with Ms Ardern after attending a meeting in Central Otago. From there he was going to Nelson and Marlborough before returning to Wellington.
Although the electorate was large, it was a niche electorate as it was all about representing the interests of Maori, he said.
"That's the uniqueness of the electorate. It is a large electorate but it is a cross-section of New Zealand.''
The issues he had identified as crucial to the electorate were housing, jobs and education for young people. They were no different in Te Tai Tonga than the rest of the electorate.
Because the electorate was so large, Mr Tirikatene attended as many hui as possible, where large numbers of people were gathering.
The other candidate is Mei Reedy-Taare, from the Maori Party.
