Sir John spent his first year out of politics largely in the background. In fact, after being the dominant politician of the previous eight or so years his disappearance from public life hardly seemed to rate a mention.
But this year the former prime minister has been back in the limelight, if just a little. His biggest moment came when he finally got Barack Obama to visit New Zealand in March. While he was unable to convince him to visit when Obama was actually president of the United States the lure of a bit of golf and a big pay day for speaking at a dinner was all that was needed.
One of the co-sponsors of the event was Air New Zealand of which Sir John is a director. The event was billed as being great for New Zealand. President Obama, with a huge twitter following, was apparently going to put this country on the map and it would represent a huge boost to tourism.
But nary a tweet out of President Obama, just the opportunity to hit a little white ball around a golf course with his mate Sir John. It is not clear what Air New Zealand got out of the venture particularly as President Obama arrived on a private jet.
One of the courses the men played at was Tara Iti Golf Club at Te Arai near Mangawhai, north Auckland.
In June Sir John’s name came up again in connection with the golf course when the government attempted unsuccessfully to exempt the Te Arai development from legislation banning foreigners from buying residential property here.
The move by the government prompted the Opposition to make allegations in Parliament against Associate Finance Minister David Parker about links he supposedly had with one of the developers. But then Forestry Minister Shane Jones disclosed he had been lobbied by Sir John to meet developers and local iwi worried about the impact of the legislation.
Late last year Sir John was also appointed chairman of ANZ New Zealand and this year was appointed to the parent company’s board. He will face an election at the bank’s annual meeting on December 19.
While he is not immersed in his business roles the former prime minister also has a few other friends with time to spare after his successor Sir Bill English retired from politics earlier this year, followed soon after by Steven Joyce.
In an interview with the Australian Financial Review earlier in the year, Sir John said his greatest regret from eight years as prime minister was his failure to get the country to change its flag. But he did not blame himself. Instead he pointed the finger at Labour and the Greens for turning the flag referendum into a political issue.
He has also publicly supported National’s new leader Simon Bridges, tweeting “you have a big job ahead of you but you’re up to the challenge so go get ’em.”