Ohariu MP Peter Dunne says his view of politics has changed since he announced his retirement - and he now smiles quietly at the "strutting earnestness" of other MPs.
"Some scales have fallen from my eyes and I have begun to see politics more from the perspective of the average citizen perhaps, than the active career politician," Dunne wrote in his regular Dunne Speaks newsletter.
"Already I have come to see many of my soon-to-be former colleagues through a different prism. I smile quietly but cynically at their strutting earnest ways and the egregious ever-so-keen-to-please and not offend tones of the political wannabes, now realising that until recently I too was playing the same games."
Dunne announced his decision to quit last week, after polls put him well behind Labour's Ohariu candidate Greg O'Connor.
National had asked its voters to back Dunne, and just weeks out from the election has now had to reverse that position and tell them to get behind its candidate Brett Hudson.