One clear and encouraging message - for people of my vintage - from the last two weeks was a demonstration that in politics, advancing age doesn't matter.
Wayne Brown, at 76 years old, cantered home in the Super City and Peters, entering his 78th year, began the revival of his interrupted political career with a rousing speech to the New Zealand First Party conference in Christchurch.
Last week, I had a chance meeting with Winston at Wellington Airport, and I can endorse the view of a journalist who observed that he looks at least 10 years younger.
Brown cleverly took advantage of a somewhat nebulous feeling that something big needs "fixing" in Auckland and equalled the former mayor Phil Goff's vote total, though not anywhere near Goff's majority.
I know Brown a little as a friend of a friend and I have always found him civil and helpful.
He has, however, been a polarising figure during his long local government career, and I think it's fair to say that he's perceived either as a no-nonsense go-getter or an egotistical blowhard.
Aucklanders will now have three years to decide, but Wayne is in for a rude awakening if he thinks he'll get his way with all or any of his "promises".
The Auckland mayor, like the mayors of Hastings and Napier, is just one vote on their councils, and the special votes that flipped two wards to centre-left candidates mean the council is not reliably in the control of Brown's likely supporters.
His call for the directors of the misnamed council-controlled organisations (CCOs) to resign immediately was ignored by all but one of the 30-plus appointees, as they had every right to do given that they were appointed by a council committee and not the previous mayor.
Most regrettably the only director who did resign was Adrienne Young-Cooper, the now former chair of Auckland Transport, who is undoubtedly the best and most experienced figure in transport governance in the country.
She will be missed.
Looking at all of the results, I can't detect any consistent "swing to the right", as claimed by some in the media. In my own Henderson-Massey Ward, Shane Henderson running under a Labour banner topped the poll for one of the two council seats and Linda Cooper, a longstanding National-aligned councillor, lost her seat to a relative unknown.
On the local community board Labour candidates scored a clear majority and former Labour MP Chris Carter topped the poll.
There were, however, some upsets and unpredictable results. The one-term mayor of Dunedin, Aaron Hawkins, was defeated handily by Jules Radich.
Radich has some decidedly odd views. On Radio New Zealand's Morning Report, when discussing his intention to install "poles" on a Dunedin beach to arrest erosion, Kim Hill asked if climate change made this more urgent than just installing poles.
His exact reply was: "No, we've got a very low rate of sea level rise here in Dunedin because the ocean's quite cold". I'm not making this up.
If Radich seriously believes that cold seas will rise at a slower rate than warmer waters then he, and the inhabitants of the low-lying suburbs of Dunedin South, have a rude comeuppance due.
Though turnout was again abysmally low, there were pleasing victories for Māori (and not just in the newly created Māori wards) including mayoral wins in the Far North and in Rotorua.
An initiative negotiated with farmers to combat climate change was rejected by the National Party. This party's rightist caucus repeatedly spurns sensible attempts to limit atmosphere-warming gases and will have great difficulty convincing younger voters, for whom the issue is crucial, to support them next year.
Luxon is not helped by the "Groundswell" protesters who rail about the minor impact of climate change measures on their incomes but undermine their case by arriving at protests on $350,000 tractors, burning the most expensive diesel in history.
Mike Williams grew up in Hawke's Bay. He is chief executive of the NZ Howard League and a former Labour Party president.
