Campaign highs and lows

Defining moments

Labour's axing of interest payments on student loans; Don Brash's repeated failure to answer questions on Iraq posed by TV3's Duncan Garner; National's tax cuts; Winston Peters' backdown on declaring his coalition preferences; Don Brash's admission he knew Exclusive Brethren members were behind anonymous pamphlets attacking Labour and the Greens; Labour being forced to release embarrassing Treasury costings of its interest-free student loan policy.

Most effective campaign

National - in spite of its gaffe-prone leader. Set the agenda on the core issues with its Brash-versus-Clark billboards, then cemented its advantage with a package of tax cuts which more than satisfied expectations the party had raised.

Most forgettable campaign

NZ First. Lost ground in the polls and then completely lost the plot. Labour a close second. Too negative, too defensive, too colourless, too safe.

Most laidback campaign

The Greens' Mike Ward, who toured the North Island on his recumbent bicycle.

Strongest individual performance

National's John Key. Solid, authoritative, consistent and unflappable - everything his leader wasn't.

Most improved performance

Jim Anderton. Relaxed, happy and humble. A complete transformation from the whingeing know-it-all of 2002.

Most impressive newcomer

Stuart Nash, Labour's Epsom candidate.

Missing in action

Don Brash's memory; the Prime Minister's sense of humour; National's Lockwood Smith from a National Radio debate on foreign policy; the Greens; John Tamihere.

Biggest disappointment

Tariana Turia. Strangely peripheral.

Biggest blunders

Winston Peters thinking he could repeat his 1996 performance and say nothing about his coalition preferences; TV3's decision to shut Peter Dunne and Jim Anderton out of its leaders' debate on grounds it did not have room for them in the studio; Trevor Mallard claiming Washington was writing National Party policy; Don Brash temporarily forgetting he had met the Exclusive Brethren.

Best stunts

Jim Anderton using the Mangere Bridge house he bought in the 1960s to launch the Progressives' housing policy; Hone Harawira's cheeky hiring of the Orewa Rotary Club's building as a speech venue.

Most hilarious stunt

Winston Peters fielding pretend calls from Don Brash and Helen Clark on blue and red cellphones to try to silence questions about NZ First's coalition preferences.

Biggest slices of baloney

Act's Rodney Hide claiming that National's cause would be helpedby Act billboards urging voters to give National their electorate vote and Act their party vote; Act's jack-up "polls" in Epsom purporting to show Hide could win the seat.

Biggest non-event

The attempt to embarrass Don Brash with a string of leaked Business Roundtable emails.

Smartest photo opportunity

Helen Clark and Jeanette Fitzsimons campaigning together in symbolic display of Labour-Greens reconciliation.

Most embarrassing photo opportunity

Don Brash's ungainly attempt to climb into a speedway car.

Most ill-advised photo opportunity

Don Brash choosing to have a beer in the Cock & Bull tavern in Botany Downs.

Most transparent display of affection

Peter Dunne's shameless wooing of the TV3 worm.

'I wish I hadn't said that' award

Don Brash saying he had been soft on Helen Clark during their TVNZ leaders' debate because she was a woman; the Greens' Rod Donald mistakenly blaming the "profit-driven" airport company for problems with runway lights at Auckland airport.

Most desperate bid for affection

Rodney Hide's constant pleading with National to give him a free run in Epsom.

Most naked declaration of non-affection

Green MP Keith Locke's promise to run nude down the main street of Epsom if Rodney Hide wins the seat.

'I wish I hadn't done that' award

Helen Clark ending up in the cockpit of an Air New Zealand 737 to extract an apology from the hapless pilot.

'I wish we had done that sooner' award

Labour making amends for the PM's silence over the speeding motorcade prosecutions with a Cabinet whip-round to pay the fines incurred by police and chauffeur.

Quote of the campaign

"I don't want any candidates talking about their testicles, to be quite frank." - Don Brash gives Bob Clarkson, his party's Tauranga candidate, a bollocking.