The National Party leader held public meetings in Te Anau, Gore and Invercargill where he talked about party intentions to get inflation under control, improve education and healthcare and restore law and order.
In Gore, a restless crowd of more than 200 people waited 20 minutes for Mr Luxon to arrive. He said he had been held up by road works.
"I had never imagined I’d be stuck in traffic on my way to Gore."
Some attendees said they were disappointed there was not more time available to question the man who could be their next prime minister.
Attendee Paul Cox said he wanted to see Mr Luxon answer the "hard questions".
"He needs to come back."
However, he was pleased to see Mr Luxon’s intention to address the cost of living crisis and that he seemed to support farmers.
Mr Luxon said a tax on agricultural emissions would have to be introduced at some point.
"But we do that in a pragmatic kind of way ... not through bankruptcy. We don’t destroy livelihoods in the process of doing that.
"We’re going to back our farmers like our All Blacks. We are the best farmers in the world."
Repealing the Three Waters reforms was on Mr Luxon’s agenda as he wanted to retain "local ownership and control" of water assets.
"Our view is that these are assets that have been built up and owned by the local citizens and ratepayers for a number of years and therefore those assets need to be in local control and ownership."
The Otago Daily Times questioned Mr Luxon after the meeting on what a National-led government would do for councils like Gore District Council, which needs $300 million invested into its water infrastructure over the next 30 years.
"From our perspective, we want to be able to work with local district councils and regions to make sure they get the investments right for the infrastructure they’ve got," he said.
This collaboration could function like the partnership between Australia’s federal and state governments or "city and regional" deals in the UK, he said.
"That’s a partnering model we’d have going forward."
In Invercargill he promised the crowd the voice of the communities would be "really" heard if his party was elected at the next election.
Mr Luxon and Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds held a public meeting yesterday at Transport World which was attended by about 300 people who were eager to hear from the party leader his ideas before the October’s central government election.
He started warming up the crowd by saying Invercargill was one of his favourite’s places in the country and he was happy that he brought rain at a time when many farmers in the region were struggling with a potential drought.
Among the top priorities of his government was reducing the cost of living, stopping what has been called wasteful spending, and sorting immigration to help make the economy grow.
Mr Luxon highlighted the importance of agriculture not only for the Southland region but also for the country.
By Michael Curreen and Luisa Girao
