KEY POINTS:
That blur you saw spin through the Capital and disappear into the upper atmosphere late last week was John Key.
Form a Government, appoint the ministers, get sworn in and fasten your seatbelts, we are off to Peru.
The speed of it all was impressive, if for no other reason than we have become accustomed to governments taking several leisurely weeks to coalesce. But with the eternally difficult Winston Peters no longer in the frame, National could get it all together in record time.
I am not sure it was vital for Key to go to Apec. Like the recent G20 summit, it's a talkfest high on rhetoric and low on action.
Apec will end with a waffling statement about the importance of collective action to combat international economic collapse and the importance of supporting the World Trade Organisation's efforts to extend the Doha round of talks on reducing tariffs.
As usual, nothing will happen.
It is probably important Key is there to add New Zealand's puny voice in warning some panicking governments not to re-erect or reinforce trade barriers. The last thing we need is our trading partners putting up the shutters to our goods.
It is also a sure-fire way to spark a worldwide depression.
Apec and the London leg of the trip offer Key a good chance to establish a working relationship with other leaders, especially Australia's Kevin Rudd and the UK's Gordon Brown.
Brown, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, has resurrected his moribund career as Prime Minister through his expert handling of the financial crisis in Britain. As money geeks, he and Key are sure to have a great, if stultifyingly boring, conversation on the world economy.
I suspect Key and Rudd will get on well. Rudd is a bureaucratic workaholic with a complete charisma bypass. But if Key is smart he will realise the Aussie Prime Minister has the perfect recipe for his Government.
Across the Tasman, Rudd is operating on a massive 62 per cent public approval level.
He has done this by remaining moderate and proceeding conservatively with an efficient non-controversial administration.
Rudd is boring but Australians like that and New Zealanders probably are not that different.
Better competent and boring than flamboyant and scandal-ridden.
The hardest thing for Key and his ministers will be retaining the perspective they built in opposition. "Staying real" is the hardest thing when you come into Government. Constantly surrounded by bureaucrats, party faithful and supplicants, it is hard to retain a grip on reality.
The Beehive world is a long way from the planet the rest of us live on.
Most ministers I have spoken to down the years indignantly deny losing touch with the electorate, claiming they constantly talk to "people".
The problem is the people they talk to all have a vested interest in telling the minister what the minister wants to hear.
The best thing the leaders do during an election campaign is hit the streets, malls and workplaces talking to the Great Unwashed.
It takes them out of the tiny ecosystem of Parliament and exposes them to views and attitudes they would otherwise never encounter.
I would advise Key and Labour leader Phil Goff to regularly go out on the road during the next three years and do short tours similar to those they make during a campaign.
A dose of reality will keep them grounded. Goff has the advantage of being in opposition, which means he is less prone to the traps that come with power.
The problem is power breeds arrogance. As a minister, you have access to massive amounts of information not accessible to the general public.
You know more than they do. You know why your Government is doing, or not doing, certain things.
The Great Unwashed do not. Inevitably, as a minister, you develop a somewhat condescending attitude to those who elected you.
Worse, the salary, the allowances, the limos, the free housing and the insulating layers of staff end up effectively bubblewrapping a minister.
If you have not had to pay the mortgage, done the weekly grocery shop, filled the car with petrol and listened to a casual conversation at the local pub, the chances are you have bugger-all idea what the rest of us are going through.
While ordinary people are fretting about paying their kids' school fees, worrying about that big dental bill coming up and watching their earnings being eroded by inflation, as a minister you are, instead, musing the upcoming Treasury forecasts.
No one cares if you had a "good day in the House".
They would not know and would care less.
The secret to any successful Government is "keeping it real" and staying in touch with the genuine concerns of the voters who put you in power of the country.
Key and his Cabinet will find that is the toughest part of their new jobs.
