Senior National MP and campaign chair Chris Bishop helped navigate his party through to victory in the 2023 election, but the boy from the Hutt struggled to make his way across downtown Auckland this morning as party members met to discuss ongoing coalition talks with Act and NZ First.
The New Zealand Herald was on hand to witness his arrival at Auckland’s Cordis Hotel this morning, as senior MPs including deputy Nicola Willis, Paul Goldsmith and Prime-Minister-in-waiting Christopher Luxon arrived bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for a meeting with the party's president.
Then in rolled Bishop.
Arriving via e-scooter, Bishop looked a little less put together than some of his colleagues and took to social media to reveal his troubled path to the hui.
Describing his morning as a “debacle”, Bishop said it all went wrong from the start.
As Auckland Council met today to vote on measures to control congestion, Bishop went to make his move across the Super City by finding a taxi.
“Couldn’t find a cab. Decided to walk to nearby cafe and get a coffee while waiting for an Uber,” he wrote.
So far, so Auckland.
Bishop then claimed he “couldn’t find a cafe” but eventually found his way to SkyCity only to find no cabs on the rank.
“Nearest Uber was 10 minutes away and was now running late. Decided to get a scooter,” Bishop wrote.
It was this decision that doomed a multi-tasking Chris Bishop, who then proved decidedly less adept at juggling everyday items than his political portfolios.
By this stage, the caffeine-starved politician had found himself a coffee and decided a takeaway was his best option.
“For some reason I thought I could have a satchel across me, phone to work out where I was going, hold coffee and also drive the scooter. This didn’t go well,” he wrote.
“Fell off scooter on Wellesley St. Coffee everywhere, mainly down my front.”
He then ditched the coffee and continued on. Until his scooter ran out of battery.
But with the weight of a rudderless nation on his shoulders, Bishop persevered.
“Found new scooter then it struggled to get up the hill. Made it in the end. Late.”
Bishop’s boss Luxon cut a much more dapper figure as he dashed into the meeting this morning, telling reporters that, a month on after the general election, negotiations with Act and NZ First to form a government are in the “final stages”.
