The stocky New South Welshman batted 5h 14m on Thursday. It is his longest test innings, eclipsing the previous best, his unbeaten 123, also against New Zealand, in Hobart in his second test four years ago, and just his first time beyond five hours at the crease.
It is also his first test as Australia's vice-captain, so there may be a link, a desire to lead in a sense.
Warner would not the most popular of Australian players, but what you see tends to be what you get.
There was the dustup in an English pub with Joe Root and the clash with Indian players - "speak English" - more recently.
Irritating and outspoken he may be, but on the evidence this week, he's can also be an engaging character.
He talked happily with New Zealand media this week on a range of topics, before giving McCullum a spray over columns he wrote during their Ashes tour of England earlier in the year critical of Warner's new captain Steven Smith, and Warner himself.
You would not rate patience among the strongest virtues of Warner's batting.
That is, if you bowled five balls just outside his off stump, he'd leave the first four alone, then you'd pick him to lay into the fifth.
Now transpose that to an interview situation.
Ask him a few times about a contentious subject and he may lay off it initially, then - aah, to heck with it, bang. Which is how the McCullum serve came about.
Warner joked about his fielding position for Australia, at third slip.
"I'm in the Qantas club, I haven't got to the first class lounge or the chairman's lounge" - a reference to the perceived seniority in the slips cordon pecking order.
He has a persistently painful thumb which, having been broken two years ago, then badly dinged again last summer against India, has left him with bone bruising.
Warner isn't moaning. He knows wicketkeepers live with broken digits.
In his previous six tests, Warner has rattled up scores of 62, 52, 83, 77, 64 and 85 in the West Indies and England, but not pushed on.
"There was a question raised about me being more focused than in the past," Warner said. "It was something I learned from England, not making the most of those fifties I had been getting.
"It was ingrained in me when I was out there to dig it out and let the heat take care of itself and let me go about my game, and that's about being patient. I definitely learned that in England."
And he used an experience in England against seamer Stuart Broad when he saw off Trent Boult.
"Broad went around the wicket and tried to draw me into drives. I adjusted to Trent Boult, he tried to have me playing outside off.
"I used that knowledge very smartly to get outside of off stump. From there I felt more comfortable. At the end of the day it's about digging in and having intent. The scoreboard reflects how good a day it was."
Warner sets the tone for Australia's batting. If he fails, others have to knuckle down. But if he gets away, he's as damaging a batsman as any.
As New Zealand discovered on Thursday.
David Warner
Age: 29
Tests: 44
Average: 48.25
Hundreds: 13
