Police-paid spy Rob Gilchrist says a senior officer shook his hand and gave him a "nice little memento" as thanks for his 10 years of undercover work.
Mr Gilchrist said the officer visited him on Thursday night, five days after his role infiltrating activist organisations was publicly exposed.
"It was a very gracious thanks," Mr Gilchrist told the Weekend Herald. "He appreciated the work I'd done over the last 10 years [and] understood how difficult it might have been."
Mr Gilchrist would not identify the police officer, but said it was a "senior officer" he had not met before, rather than his handlers from the anti-terrorist Special Investigations Group (SIG). He would not identify the memento, except to say it was not "as cheesy" as a certificate of merit.
Mr Gilchrist said he was recruited by the police ahead of the Apec summit in New Zealand in 1999.
He infiltrated various activist groups until he was discovered and outed by his now ex-girlfriend, animal rights activist Rochelle Rees.
Mr Gilchrist said New Zealanders should be thankful for his work, some of which "saved the country economically". After Police Commissioner Howard Broad's assurances that the SIG only targeted individuals, Ms Rees released emails showing that Mr Gilchrist also passed police information about the Green Party, student associations and union groups.
The Greens and unions have called for a Commission of Inquiry, and the Maritime Union yesterday threatened to strike unless it got a full explanation and apology from the police.
Asked what the relevance of Green Party and union actions were to the police, Mr Gilchrist said it would have related to protests.
He said his job was a "gatherer", not an analyst, and the information might have had some use he did not know of.
He conceded he was not a real police officer, but would not say whether police had stopped paying him since he was exposed.
Mr Gilchrist said his cellphone was with the electronic crime unit after Ms Rees had said she placed spyware in it after realising he was an infiltrator.
He would not comment if his work in part led to Operation Eight and its so-called terror raids.
Mr Gilchrist said his personal view was that many of the causes he infiltrated "do a lot of good".
