He was clearly shocked by Prime Minister Helen Clark's announcement she was standing down, saying he thought she might have done so in a couple of months or even longer.
It was, however, the sort of decisiveness for which Miss Clark was known.
She had always done what was in the best interests of the party, he said.
It was a time for renewal in the party, a process which had already begun with the stepping aside of some of the senior politicians, acknowledging that in the case of Dunedin South MP David Benson-Pope that had involved "quite a lot of tension and passion".
He said while he was sad about the national result, he was also " quite charged" by the way Labour was appealing to young people, paying particular tribute to the support given by young people in the audience (about half of those present).
Some of them would "go on to become bad accountants and so on", but others would choose to have a role in politics.
The atmosphere at the clubrooms during the evening was subdued, but resigned.
Even before Miss Clark's concession speech, some young people were trying to find something positive about the expected defeat, also talking of the next three years as a time for the party to spend renewing the party at the grassroots.
Mr Hodgson was philosophical about the prospect of three years in opposition, pointing out that he had spent half of his 18 years in Parliament in that position.
After congratulating the incoming government, he warned Labour would be a very good opposition.
While Mr Hodgson was the winner of the electorate seat, two other candidates from that contest will also be in Parliament from party lists - the Green Party's Metiria Turei (already a list MP) and newcomer National's Michael Woodhouse, 49th on its party list.
Hilary Calvert, at sixth on the Act New Zealand Party list, could have been the fourth MP from the electorate, but Act's totals translated to only five MPs.
Ms Calvert said she was not going around feeling disappointed about that.
The change of government was "pretty fabulous".
The government would be a stable one without a lot of people threatening to throw their "toys out of the cot" if things did not go their way.
Mr Hodgson was pleased with his majority, which was 61 votes higher than in 2005, although the total number of votes cast for him was down 551 at 15,350.
Labour's list votes were lower than at the last election too, by 2892, with the National Party and the Greens picking up significantly more votes.
Act's party vote almost doubled, standing at 662.
Mr Woodhouse was the second-highest polling candidate on 8690 votes.
Outgoing National list MP Katherine Rich had polled 612 higher in 2005.
Green Party list MP Metiria Turei came third with 3091 votes, 1027 votes higher than the Green candidate in the previous election, Philippa Jamieson.
Ms Turei, who was returned on the list, was pleased with the electorate result, particularly the party vote which, at 4448, was about 900 votes ahead of the final result in 2005.
She was not looking forward to the possibility of a National/Act government which she feared would be inclined to favour the wealthy at a time when poor people were vulnerable.
