Claire Trevett: 'President Clinton' goes with the flow

Hillary Clinton and Rose Tahuparae White hongi. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Forewarned is forearmed, so for US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit, there was evidence of briefings on how to cope with a powhiri, how to hongi and what to expect at a Kiwi barbie.

Alas, there was clearly no briefing on Wellington's wind or the Prime Minister's equally unremitting tendency to make bad jokes.

Mrs Clinton discovered the first when she arrived from Papua New Guinea at 5am, weary from the travel, and the wind made sure that in the first photos of her in New Zealand, her hair was standing straight upwards.

Not one to be caught out twice, she had it sorted by the time she arrived outside Parliament at 2pm. She had bling on her ears and black patent wedges on her toes. She clearly also had product on her hair.

She walked through the powhiri, hongi-ed with aplomb, and all the while her hair barely moved.

She discovered the peril of the PM's jokes soon after when the pair held a joint press conference. After a morning in which Parliament had crawled with security, bomb squads and snipers clad in balaclavas, an American reporter asked for a microphone to ask his question. "Just fire away," the press secretary said.

Mr Key couldn't resist. "Not literally," he said, apparently oblivious that joking about such matters is a federal offence when it comes to the Secretary of State.

Nonetheless, Mrs Clinton was out to charm. While Mr Key stood nodding along, she launched into fulsome praise for New Zealand and - happily for Mr Key - himself. His nodding strengthened when she described the relationship as the "strongest and most productive in 25 years".

He nearly gave himself whiplash when she went on to talk about the "excellent conversations" she had enjoyed with him and the important role he had taken at President Obama's conference on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, where Mr Key's views were "in line with Obama's vision".

So delighted was Mr Key that, as he went to wrap up, he forgot all about Mr Obama and his vision and instead referred to her as "President Clinton". As officials squirmed, Mrs Clinton laughed.

Click here for the transcript of the media conference.

At her official reception, a screen in the Banquet Hall showed images of NZ icons followed by the US translation. There were rubbish bins and trash cans, rugby and grid-iron, sausage on bread and hot dogs, cricket and baseball, the Beehive and Congress, kiwi and bald eagle, pavlova and apple pies, John Key and Barack Obama.

But Mrs Clinton had clearly learned a few things in her first few hours in the country. Earlier in the day, she had referred to her welcome as a "powerry". When she spoke at the reception, she again mentioned the powhiri - this time pronouncing the word correctly. "I've never seen anything quite like it and am delighted to have survived it."

She showed Mr Key she, too, was capable of making a little joke, saying her husband - the real President Clinton - and daughter had urged her to visit after their own time here.

"I know it won't be my last visit. But I can't make too many excuses to come too often or Congress might become a little bit suspicious as to why I'm spending so much time in New Zealand instead of ... well, Afghanistan."