The Papamoa log has a proud new owner today, businessman Yo Roberts who last night won the Trade Me auction with a $150 bid.

The log was put up for auction last week by Papamoa Facebook page administrator Rosalie Crawford, as a means of raising funds for a local charity which provides food parcels for struggling families.

The famous Papamoa log, which generated $150 on TradeMe. Photo: Facebook.

The sale started with a one dollar reserve, which was met almost immediately. Yo won the bidding with the 20th and final bid, surpassing the previous mark of $80, when the auction closed last night.

Yo says he has no interest in the log, but bid to donate to a worthy charity.

He's planning to leave the log where it is. He doesn't have any plans to paint it, yarn bomb it, or even put a plaque on it.

'I'm happy to leave it there, just leave it as it is,” says the log's proud new owner today. 'I think it is good to just let nature do its thing with it, it's more to do with the charity. I thought it was a good charity so I thought why not.

'I'll keep it where it is for people to enjoy, and at the end of the day I did it more for the charity. I'm a local Business owner in Tauranga and I thinks it's good to give back to the community a little bit,” says Yo.

'I was actually quite surprised. I stayed up and I thought it may bid for a bit more but it only hit the $150.”

And he's happy to match people dollar of dollar up to $500.

All funds will go to Evans Road Community Church which donates food parcels to struggling families Papamoa families for the last three to four years.

'We used to only look after our own people about ten years ago,” says the church's property manager John Skerritt.

'But we thought well, there's more people in need out there, so we can provide back-up to the main food bank, but there's a lot of need out there. More than I thought there was.”

A $1000 would make a massive difference, says John.

'We do struggle to get food in. We want to be able to carry more meat in the freezer so we can give a whole meal instead of just say tinned stuff or dry goods.

'So we can buy more meat, chicken, things like that so we can actually feed the family for a week. Sometimes we can't do it because we haven't got the stuff.”

They try to give at least three or four full meals with sausages or hot pies or chicken, beef and dry good to go with the meats, pasta and rice, or sauce.

They try and ensure good meals from Monday to Friday, or if it's a Friday, until Tuesday.

'The weekends seem to be the worst time,” says John. 'We do get quite a few come in round the Thursday/Friday mark.

The log is an occasional resident that already has its own hashtag #papamoalog, and is accused of photo bombing family pictures, says Rosalie Crawford.

It has also featured on a couple of facebook pages, including the recently post 'Save the Papamoa log' Facebook page.