Kiwi in Washington press pack

Reporter Anna Fifield has a desk at the White House and is rostered once a month to trail the president. Photo / Supplied

Weekends on the golf course with the world's most powerful man, riding in the presidential motorcade, and now posing for photos with Barack Obama's arm around her waist.

It's all part of the job for New Zealander Anna Fifield, aged 33, whose journalism career has taken her from Rotorua's Daily Post to London, from Korea to Iran, and now to the White House.

Fifield, recently appointed Washington DC correspondent for the London-based Financial Times, pressed palms with Barack and Michelle Obama at a White House party on December 18, thrown for the political journalists stationed there. "They were incredibly chipper and friendly to us," she said.

She has a desk at the White House and is rostered once a month to trail the President all day. Fifield has been stationed in Washington since September, which she describes as "a real privilege".

She said Obama is very measured and always thinks everything through.

"I have to admit that we journalists are suckers for Obama, too. We have to make a conscious effort to ... go back to being hard-nosed hacks."