Key turns on the charm for Kapiti

John Key and Nathan Guy chat with children from Kapiti Primary School aboard a new Matangi train. Photo / Mark Mitchell

While he played it down, Prime Minister John Key's tightly scheduled swing through towns on the Kapiti coast north of Wellington yesterday had more than a whiff of election campaigning about it.

Over the course of the day, with his geniality set to full beam, Mr Key sang the national anthem with a group of schoolchildren at Waikanae, served burgers and fries at a McDonald's in Paraparaumu's Coastlands mall and picked out fabric to be made into a tie at a factory in Otaki.

Outside the factory he indulged a beneficiary's request for an autograph on the man's Work and Income payment card before hopping into his ministerial BMW for the drive to the Levin Ambulance Station.

At one point it was literally a whistle-stop tour as he took one of the Wellington rail network's new Korean-made Matangi electric trains from Paraparaumu to Waikanae.

But when he got off the train, he and Otaki MP and Internal Affairs Minister Nathan Guy were greeted by about 20 protesters opposed to Transport Minister Steven Joyce's plan to build a four-lane expressway through the town, a plan that involves taking out dozens of homes in the process.

Mr Key's smile, however, was undimmed.

"People have a right to protest and in my time as Prime Minister I get a fair few protests, that's just the nature of democracy."

Back down the road in Paraparaumu, Mr Key was to open the refurbished Coastlands cinema but the site, like list MP Hekia Parata's claim on the Mana electorate, was a work in progress.

While she lost to Labour newcomer Kris Faafoi in the byelection late last year, she slashed Labour's majority from 6155 to 1080 and will be hoping for better in November.

Meanwhile, Mr Guy will be looking to consolidate his hold on the Otaki electorate he wrestled from Labour's Darren Hughes in 2008 with a somewhat slender 1354 vote majority.

So was this early campaigning in key electorates?

"Not really," Mr Key said, "but truthfully, we're 97 days from an election so we try and reach out and go to different communities. I pretty much do that every week anyway whether there's an election or not."

But Mr Key did indicate he and his party would be working to win votes over coming weeks despite the Rugby World Cup dominating public interest.

The five weeks between the end of the tournament and the election was not a lot of time "to get out there and sell our messages".