Tauranga locals can help put another much-needed ambulance on New Zealand roads, thanks to ASB's annual St John toy ambulance campaign.

This year, the popular block-set toy ambulance will now come with an ambulance station as part of a 419-piece building block set.

The child-friendly boxsets are being sold for $30 at ASB branches across New Zealand.

ASB aims to raise money to buy another fully-functioning, fully equipped ambulance. All proceeds will go directly to St John.

With 100,000 ambulance calls, 157,000 patients cared for and millions of kilometres travelled in the past year alone, St John ambulances and paramedics are at the frontline of emergency response in New Zealand's central region, which encompasses the Bay of Plenty.

This is the third time Kiwis will help put an ambulance on New Zealand roads, thanks to the toy ambulance campaign. Christchurch received the first ambulance in early 2016 and Dunedin received the campaign's second big ambulance in July.

To date, the ASB-funded vehicles have responded to more than 4200 incidents combined, transporting almost 2600 of these to treatment centres in the local Dunedin and Canterbury communities.

ASB general manager branch banking Grant Gilbert says ASB has been a proud supporter of St John for 10 years.

'We know the ASB toy ambulance is a much-loved item so we're excited to bring it back for a third year – this time it's bigger and better than ever. In previous years we've heard kids and adults have made their own ambulance stations so we thought we'd add one to complete the set,” says Grant.

'We hope New Zealanders support St John again with this year's campaign. Not only is it a great way to support St John, Kiwis can look forward to seeing a brand new ambulance on the road and know they played a part in making that happen.”

St John general manager central region Andrew Boyd says the ASB toy ambulances will no doubt be a sell-out again this year.

'In addition to providing a fantastic Christmas gift idea, we hope this year's ASB St John toy ambulance and station will again help us realise a real, full-size ambulance for New Zealand's roads.”