John Roughan - John Key: Portrait of a Prime Minister

On a summers evening shortly after New Year 2014, New Zealand television news channels carried a tantalising glimpse of the countrys Prime Minister, holidaying in Hawaii, playing golf with the President of the United States. In polo shirt and shorts, John Key watched his son Max sink a putt and receive a high-five from Barack Obama. New Zealands diplomats were agog. This was face time beyond their dreams. How had it happened?

The invitation, Key explains, had been made a month earlier at the funeral of Nelson Mandela. He was sitting with Australias new Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, when Obama came into view. Abbott asked Key to introduce them. As the three of them chatted, Obama said to Key, You going to Hawaii this year?

Yes, said Key.

We should play golf, suggested the President.

Key agreed.

Obama indicated he was serious, inviting Key to have your people talk to his personal aide, Marvin Nicholson.

Back in Wellington, Keys chief of staff Wayne Eagleson and foreign affairs adviser Ben King kept the invitation to themselves as they made the arrangements. It was not their place to disclose what the US President might do on vacation. They were not even sure if they would be allowed to tell anybody afterwards. They let the New Zealand foreign ministry know only a day or two beforehand. After all, it might not happen. Any number of unexpected events could cause the White House to cancel a game of golf.

Barring an incident, Key was confident it would happen. He knew the offer was genuine, that it wasnt merely one of those We must catch up sometime gestures. But he had not even told his son that he was invited too. Max, who had finished his first year at university, was staying in Auckland for New Year and due to arrive in Hawaii a day too late for the game. When his father called to say, If you want to get here a day earlier you can play golf with Barack Obama, Max was on the next plane.

Obama chose a course on a military base 20 kilometres from Honolulu and not far from his Oahu holiday home. The Keys whose Hawaiian retreat is on Maui had to island-hop. Once they were out on the course, small groups of military families gathered at every vantage point to see the President. During the game, Obama would walk over, shake their hands and thank them for their service. Keys people need not have worried about publicity. A White House photographer accompanied the players for the entire 18 holes and media were waiting at the second hole.

That is how it happened, but Keys unassuming account does not go to the heart of why these things happen for him. In between strokes, he and Obama talked about their work and families and lives. Key mentioned that he, wife Bronagh, daughter Stephie and son Max had been guests of the Queen at Balmoral Castle the previous year. Obama thought he meant an invitation to dinner. No, explained Key, we went for the weekend. He talks more about that weekend than royal protocol may permit, though the Queen might not be surprised. It was not protocol that prompted her invitation she is not obliged to entertain prime ministers at her private estate for a weekend. So, how does Key explain that one?

To this day, I dont know why, but she invited us. It was a long time ago, before the Christchurch earthquake, and her private secretary came up to me after an audience and said, Her Majesty wonders if you would like to come to Balmoral? I said, Yes, thatd be great. So they formally invited us, but the Christchurch earthquake postponed that, which she understood. The next time I was there, the Queen asked after the family and I mentioned that Stephie was over from Paris. The Queen said, You should bring her to see me. So I did, and on the way out the private secretary said to me, The Queen thinks you should bring your whole family to Balmoral.

It was arranged for the third weekend of September 2013. William and Catherine and the baby would be there with several friends. Britains Prime Minister David Cameron was coming for the Sunday night. John and Bronagh with Stephie and Max arrived on the Friday evening and were shown to rooms inside the castle.

They are not overly flash. I mean, its a castle. They havent spent enormous money to make it lavish. Its lovely. Its warm, though they cant stay there in winter its too big to heat. There are no showers; you take baths. It is incredibly relaxed. Theres obviously a degree of formality insomuch that if the Queen goes to leave the room, everyone stands. But outside of that it is extremely informal.

They knew one of the evening meals would be a barbecue and the other a black-tie dinner, but did not know which it was on the night they arrived. It doesnt matter to me, laughs Key, I can put a black tie on in two minutes. They had spring-loaded cufflinks there for dressing really fast. That night it was the barbecue, held somewhere on the estate. John and Bronagh went in the Queens Range Rover, the Queen driving with a corgi on the seat beside her. William drove the car behind with Stephie and Max. Prince Philip had gone ahead to oversee the setting-up.

The barbecue was in a small house with a long table. The Queen, wearing a sweater and kilt, set out the plates. At one point in the evening, Key, sitting next to her, saw his daughter in fits of laughter with William about something, his son at the other end of the table talking to Kate, and thought, This is quite surreal.

In a lot of ways, Im used to seeing famous people. I go to lots of meetings and over time I have got more used to it. But it was the fact that the family were there. It was the same with playing golf with Obama. It was great, but it was really cool that Max was playing with him. Theres lots of things the family give up [for my career] and the really nice thing is they will have some incredible memories one day when they look back, hopefully.

The next morning, William and friends took Max grouse-shooting and Catherine invited Stephie on a long walk. They all got back in time for the Queen to take them on a tour of the estate before a picnic.