Aussies help PM scrub up

John Key and Kevin Rudd. Photo / The Australian

Australians and New Zealanders overseas generally band together but the Australian Prime Minister had a rather unusual backpacker knocking on his door yesterday morning - Kiwi Prime Minister John Key.

Mr Key woke at the start of a busy day that included meeting President Barack Obama and several other world leaders, and found he couldn't shower or shave because the water in his hotel was off.

Options were a 20-minute ride uptown to the New Zealand ambassador's residence or accepting an offer from the nearby hotel where Australia's leader, Kevin Rudd, was staying.

"I wandered over there in my jeans and T-shirt looking rather dishevelled with a suit and a shirt and some shaving gear," Mr Key said.

"I opened the door and who was standing there but Kevin Rudd who rather gleefully said to me this was an extension of the Anzac spirit and welcomed me into his bathroom."

Mr Rudd joked that as the US had its policy debate on health reform, he had had his own experience of "socialised hygiene".

"I woke up this morning at the appropriate hour ... only to encounter a queue, a line of people outside my bathroom, led by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Foreign Minister of NZ and most of our diplomatic staff," Mr Rudd told a lunch in New York.

"So, if Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg is here, I would say this is an extreme way to treat our Kiwi cousins," Mr Rudd said.

Dozens of people, including the New Zealand and other foreign delegations, as well as members of the Australian diplomatic party and Mr Rudd's staff were left without any water for several hours because of a fault with the hotel's water system.

- NZPA