An Auckland couple are preparing to spend $5000 to bring a stray street dog home from Rarotonga after falling in love with him on a holiday.

Brenda Tanner-McCann was enjoying a holiday in the village of Vaimaanga with her husband Andrew, when the dog they now affectionately call Buddy, plopped down between them and immediately went to sleep.

"It was our first day in Rarotonga and we were just sitting at the beach when he laid down beside us and after that he didn't leave our side for the entire week."

Almost immediately, Tanner-McCann realised the Buddy was in a lot of physical pain.

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"When we first met him, we both noticed that he absolutely stank. We noticed he had some matted fur and what looked like a big abscess so we took him to the volunteer vet clinic."

Supplied Dog tired: Within five minutes of meeting Buddy he was fast asleep between the Tanner-McCanns.

There they discovered Buddy had an untreated infection caused by him being attacked by another dog.

While at the clinic, it was determined Buddy wasn't registered and had been living as a stray on the beach.

The couple spent the rest of the week caring for him, giving him his medication and applying cream to his wound.

"When it was time to leave the island, he followed us to the taxi and I just wanted to do more for him somehow, it was so hard leaving him."

With the help of the Cook Islands SPCA, Tanner-McCann hatched a plan to bring Buddy to New Zealand and find him his forever home.

"I spoke with SPCA volunteers over there and they told me they had done similar things in the past and look after things on their end."

Supplied Vets in Rarotonga estimated Buddy was between one and two years old.

The couple are now trying to raise the $5000 needed to bring Buddy into New Zealand.

Tanner-McCann has started a Givealittle page to help raise the funds and said she'd been "amazed" by the response so far.

"I started the campaign on August 9 and we're already almost halfway there through donations."

Supplied Buddy and Andrew Tanner-McCann take a stroll down the beach in the village of Vaimaanga, Rarotonga.

Once the money is raised, SPCA volunteers plan to pick Buddy up and put him in a kennel while they do blood tests - from there he will travel to New Zealand where he must spend time in quarantine.

Ministry of Primary Industries spokeswoman Lesley Patston said it was possible to bring a dog from the Cook Islands to New Zealand but there were a lot of special requirements.

"When bringing dogs in from the Cook Islands they need to have a permit as well as having a post-arrival inspection and spend a period of time in quarantine."

Supplied Tanner-McCann with her husband Andrew (right) and standard poodle Rawley (left).

Patston said the process was in place to avoid animals bringing in a range of diseases or carrying pests.

"Any animal that enters the country must spend a minimum 10 days in a quarantine facility."

The whole process is expected to take around three months.

Supplied Tanner-McCann (centre), said her whole family was dog-crazy.

On the off-chance Tanner-McCann isn't able to get Buddy to New Zealand, she said all of the funds raised would be donated to the Cook Islands SPCA.

Tanner-McCann said she knew she needed to help Buddy from the moment she met him.

"He had such a beautiful nature with people as well as with the other animals on the island, he protected the chickens and their babies from other stray dogs, all he wanted to do was be around people."

Supplied Buddy will live with Tanner-McCann's godson, Harrison Whittle and an extended fur family.

Buddy's love for people could however, get him into trouble if he hung around accommodation for too long looking for scraps.

"He's defenceless and I worry about how he's doing a lot, he had that infection for such a long time, I worry about it happening again. The dogs there live such a different life from dogs here," Tanner-McCann said.

Strays dogs are a problem in Rarotonga, with around 5000 living on the streets, and Tanner-McCann was concerned Buddy might end up being euthanised.

"I'm a big animal lover and I wish I could save all of the strays," Tanner-McCann said.

If Buddy makes it to New Zealand, he will live with Tanner-McCann's godson Harrison Whittle.

Whittle, 23, has been looking for a dog he can call his own for the past few months and jumped at the chance to adopt Buddy.

"It just seemed like the perfect opportunity," Whittle said, "I love dogs and I've had a lot of family ones over the years but this will be the first dog that's fully mine."

Whittle also has experience training dogs after working as a dog handler while beekeeping.

"I trained up a disease detection dog to sniff out diseases in the hive, it was good fun and taught me a lot. While Buddy will be more of a companion dog, it would be cool to be able to train him in disease detection as well."

Tanner-McCann said she was determined to get Buddy to New Zealand and believe the money needed would be raised.

"As Kiwis, we love dogs. I think Buddy's story touches something in everyone."