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It was the mob of kids that began loitering outside his house that made Richard Kahui realise life had changed.
Having begun last year as one of the country's most promising - but still untested - rugby players, he ended it as a bona fide All Blacks star.
With his rise to the national team came a new level of fame. But a "massive year" on from when he last sat down with the Herald to chat and listed his goals as playing well, staying injury-free and keeping out of the papers, Kahui seems unchanged.
"I just have a lot more kids hanging outside my house," he said.
"I live just down from a school so I have plenty of kids hanging around outside passing rugby balls until I come out. I was doing some renovations on my house and I actually had some of them stacking bits of wood for me, so it comes in handy sometimes.
"Other than that, not too much has changed. I'm still the same guy and everyone else still treats me like the same guy."
Entering just his third full Super 14 season and still just 23, Kahui shapes as a key figure for the Chiefs as they look to shake off their mid-table battlers tag.
When Kahui plays in his customary centre position, the Chiefs' backline tends to purr. Defensively, they often looked lost without him.
The numbers back up that impression. Of the eight games he played last season in a campaign interrupted by a high ankle sprain, the Chiefs won six. Of the five he missed, they lost four.
While Kahui rates his defence as his biggest strength, he insists he is no more important than any other player in the backline.
"We've all got different roles and we are all better at different things." he said.
But Kahui is good at lots of things. His versatility is a key strength.
That was in evidence when he sealed his reputation by playing out of position after being called into the All Blacks to play wing in a series of vital Tri-Nations tests. His opposite numbers in those matches - Lote Tuqiri and Bryan Habana - were hardly slugs, but Kahui managed to come out on the right side of the ledger.
He had already scored a try on an impressive debut against England but the unexpected news that he had been promoted to the starting line-up for the must-
win match against the Wallabies at Eden Park came via a phone call while he was out buying a tennis racquet.
"Any chance to play for the All Blacks I wasn't going to turn down but it was obviously a pretty nervous time," he said.
It was a selection that provoked plenty of debate but, despite lacking the top end pace of the likes of Habana, Kahui was a steady presence as the All Blacks finished the Tri Nations with three successive victories.
Although a success as a winger, he is in no doubt his future is in the midfield. Happy to bide his time behind the in-form Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith in the big games last season, his aim is to make the 13 shirt his own.
"That is definitely my goal and that starts now with Super 14. I need to get a good season under my belt and make that Tri Nations squad because nothing is guaranteed. You've got to earn your place again. My first goal is to play well and get back in that black jersey again and if the Chiefs can play well and win a Super 14 it will go a long way towards that."
Blessed not just with a near-faultless rugby skill set, Kahui caught the eye of more than just the kids last season. Some female fans even rate him above Dan Carter in the eye-candy stakes. Kahui, though, won't have a bar of such talk.
"I don't look that good in a pair of undies. I've roomed with [Dan] and when he gets out of bed he just glows from the moment he opens his eyes."
Maybe so. But if he continues the progress he made last season, New Zealand rugby will have a second golden boy on its hands.
